Charbel Nahas

Charbel Nahas (Arabic: شربل نحاس‎) Nahas is the current Labour minister in Najib Mikati's second government as of June 2011. He is one of Eleven Change and Reform ministers, which is headed by General Michel Aoun, the largest share that it has ever had in Government. Nahas is widely considered to be a Lebanese progressive whose priority has been to improve living conditions for the country's disenfranchised poor.^[1]

Background

Charbel Nahas was born on 16 August 1954. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris in 1976, and from the Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées, also in Paris, in 1978. He completed his PhD in social anthropology from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in 1980.

Nahas is a leading economist, is the author of many publications and studies on the Lebanese economy, and has acted as an expert for a number of Lebanese state institution, as well as many international organisations, including the World Bank and the United Nations. He was also a professor at the Lebanese University for 12 years, where he headed the Civil Engineering Department. Much of his work has centered around Lebanon's macroeconomic situation, in particular its sovereign debt, which Nahas has maintained is unsustainable. He is also the author of A Socioeconomic Programme for Lebanon, which was published by the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies in March 2006.^[2] Finally, through his work, he has contributed to development in areas including policy formation and public administration in Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, amongst others.

Political career

Minister of Telecommunications

In November 2009, Nahas was appointed Lebanese Minister of Telecommunications in the first government headed by Saad Hariri.^[3] Several commentators at the time hailed Nahas' appointment as a victory for Lebanese progressives.^[4] Sources indicated that one of the factors that led the FPM to nominate Nahas was to participate in ongoing discussions in relation to the annual state budget and the national debt, which are priority issues for the FPM.^[5] In 2006, Nahas wrote that "[a]lthough most of the rest of the world has moved on from the attitude that had been prevalent in the 1990s, according to which privatisation was the solution to all problems relating to public finance, Lebanon still adheres to that old mentality, either as a result of intellectual laziness or opportunism. [...] What we need in Lebanon is a 'better state', and not a 'lesser state'."^[6] Subsequent reports indicate that Nahas supports the part-privitization of the telecom sector to a consortium of companies while ensuring that the government and the Lebanese public retains a stake.^[7] On December 11, 2009, Nahas announced that his ministry plans to create facilities to provide at least 90% of regions in Lebanon with broadband internet access.^[8]

In November 2009, Nahas was appointed to the committee responsible for drafting the new government's policy statement.^[9] In the committee's first meeting, he called for Lebanon's economic system to be reformed, saying that "it is outdated. The Taef Agreement did not meet the requirements needed." ^[10] During the summer of 2010, Nahas raised a number of objections in cabinet meetings to the draft budget law that was proposed by Finance Minister Raya Haffar al-Hassan. In particular, he objected to what he described as the proposed law's failure to address Lebanon's basic economic difficulties (which manifested themselves in the form of high unemployment and emigration) at a time of relatively favorable circumstances (including a spectacular increase in capital in-flows since 2008). Nahas proposed a number of changes to the draft budget law that would reduce the burdens on employment and on income, as well as increased investment in a modern public transport system in Lebanon. He has also insisted on a number of methodological changes, including the elimination of all off-balance sheet expenses.^[11] The draft budget law was eventually approved by the Cabinet, including by Nahas, on 19 June 2010.^[12] Nahas was subsequently involved in efforts to investigate an alleged Israeli espionage operation which had infiltrated the Lebanese telecommunications network.

As minister of telecommunications, Nahas set as one of his goals to modernise the Lebanese telecom sector, which at the time was ranked as amongst the least competitve and the least developed in the world.^[13] Early in his tenure, his Ministry entered into a number of agreements for the creation a 3.9G network in Lebanon, and also commenced work on the installation of a fibre optics network. The 3G network was officially launched in October 2011, while the fibre optics network is set for completion in 2012.^[14] During Nahas' tenure, a number of measures to reduce the cost of mobile phones for less advantaged citizens were introduced. Amongst other things, the cost of purchasing a prepaid mobile phone line was reduced from $100 to $25, a collect call mechanism was introduced, as was a "family and friends" measure, which reduced prices for prepaid cellphone subscribers.^[15]

Minister of Labour

In June 2011, Nahas was appointed Lebanese Minister of Labour in the second government headed by Najib Mikati. Najib Miqati is rumored to have vetoed Nahas' reappointment as Minister of Telecommunications. In his new position, Nahas has focused on improving the rights of foreign domestic workers, on increasing the minimum wage in Lebanon and on granting health care to all Lebanese citizens. He has argued that such measures are necessary to achieve greater social justice in Lebanon.^[16]

Personal

Nahas was born on August 16, 1954. He is married with four children.

External links

• Charbel Nahas's personal website
• Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications' official website
• Lebanese Ministry of Labour's official website
• The Free Patriotic Movement's official website
• Interview with Dr Charbel Nahas, Al-Akhbar (Lebanon), 5 December 2009
• Interview with Dr Charbel Nahas, L'Orient Le Jour, 27 May 2010

References

1. ^ Angry Arab, http://angryarab.net/2010/11/24/minister-sharbil-nahhas/, retrieved November 8, 2011 
2. ^ Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, http://charbelnahas.org/spip.php?article164, retrieved November 16, 2009 
3. ^ The Lebanese Presidency, http://www.presidency.gov.lb/PhotoGallery/Pages/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsRef=3077, retrieved November 11, 2009 
4. ^ . Al-Akhbar. http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/taxonomy/term/15602%2C18238. 
5. ^ The Daily Star, http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=108640, retrieved November 12, 2009 
6. ^ Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, http://charbelnahas.org/spip.php?article164, retrieved November 16, 2009 
7. ^ "Lebanese ministers united behind privatization plans". The Daily Star. 2009-12-12. http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=109694. 
8. ^ "Nahhas says broadband access to cover at least 90% of Lebanon". NOWLebanon. 2009-12-11. http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=131932. 
9. ^ Assafir, http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1080&EditionId=1387&ChannelId=32122, retrieved November 11, 2009 
10. ^ Naharnet, http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&80C14CA35D710D8BC225766D0036B0ED, retrieved November 13, 2009 
11. ^ "Le " Yes we can " de Nahas, un appel vibrant à une révision de la politique économique". L'Orient Le Jour. 2010-05-27. http://mplbelgique.wordpress.com/2010/05/27/debat-le-%C2%AB-yes-we-can-%C2%BB-de-nahas-un-appel-vibrant-a-une-revision-de-la-politique-economique/. 
12. ^ "Cabinet approves first budget in five years". The Daily Star. 2010-06-18. http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=116167#axzz0rKKP7DiN. 
13. ^ "Lebanon has slowest internet in the world". The Daily Start. 2011-03-09. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2011/Mar-09/Lebanon-has-slowest-Internet-in-the-world-report.ashx. 
14. ^ "Telecoms Ministry officially launches long-awaited 3G service". The Daily Star. 2011-10-21. http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2011/Oct-21/151816-telecoms-ministry-officially-launches-long-awaited-3g-service.ashx#axzz1b2TrahWI. 
15. ^ "Last Month - January: Lebanon edition". Executive. 2011-02-05. http://executive-magazine.com/getarticle.php?article=13969. 
16. ^ "Labor Reform in Lebanon: Wagging the Minimum Wage?". Al-Akhbar. 2011-08-27. http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/labor-reform-lebanon-wagging-minimum-wage. 

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Name	Nahas, Charbel
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Date of birth	1954
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