25 years have passed since the Regie stood to re-establish, through its challenging efforts, confidence in public administrations, thanks to the belief in the importance of building the nation and boosting the economy. Confidently we strengthened our will, willfully we achieved success, and successfully we stood firm.
This is a worth telling story of success and steadfastness after we won the bet and became a leading institution in the public sector. However, the path we took in order to achieve this was anything but easy. Yet, we were able turn from a public institution that relies on treasury bonds to pay the salaries of its employees into a backbone of the national treasury and economy.
Truth be told, success is not as difficult as maintaining it. The distress we have faced over the past 25 years are what drive us today to hang on what we have achieved and to bear the responsibility of future generations. Hence, we have adopted an ingenious, long-term planning strategy that helps us maintain a culture of work, a spirit of cooperation and, more importantly, help us understand risks to fight all kinds of corruption.
In the 1990s, we were able to liberate the Lebanese agricultural land from feudal and political control. We distributed licenses and permits over 25,000 Lebanese families, after they were limited to 4% of the farmers, who dominated 96% of licensed areas. Afterward, we aimed to reduce the crop purchase process and to pay farmers through bank accounts; limiting public waste and error.
On the commercial level, we have adopted a lucrative partnership policy with the world's largest tobacco companies. Thus, we were able to control smuggling and to increase the national treasury's income from tobacco sales. This occurred simultaneously with the administrative reform we have achieved, starting with a modern administrative structure that reduced the number of wage workers from 4500 to less than 1000 according to their skills, qualifications, and experience. Later the reform evolved with the empowerment of our human resources on account of our business requirement.
The confidence that the Regie built locally quickly expanded beyond the borders. We gained the trust of the world by acquiring the ISO 9001 Quality Certificate in 2015, which we still maintain. We have also emerged in the field of manufacturing, becoming today the largest tobacco manufacturer in the Middle East. We have recently launched modern sorting factories in Ghazieh and Bekfaya to meet local and global needs. As well, we produce 9 local products and 12 international brands in our 4 new factories in Hadat.
Such was not easily achieved considering political fluctuations, conflict of interests, and the delicate security situation that the country has undergone and still today. How many times have we gathered our energies to stand against criticism or uncertainty that ourselves had about the idea of a successful public facility. However, our confidence in our human resources, land, partners, and allies has made us stand up to the challenge instead of giving in to the bitter reality. We have absolutely refused, under any circumstances, to be involved in killing the hope of building a nation, a state, and an economy.
Yesterday we chose success with merit, so we hardly worked to preserve our achievements. Today we are pleased to be the first public administration dedicated to supporting society through sustainable development initiatives. Because we believe in our success, we reestablish confidence in our country and its ability to support us, hoping that other public and private institutions would do the same. Therefore they become as well pride for Lebanon and its children. Good luck!