Beirut slashes red tape for new businesses
The prolonged agony of registering a new company in Lebanon may be coming to an end thanks to a new agreement between the government and LibanPost on Friday. The new system permits an entrepreneur to hire a legal representative and prepare an application and supporting papers from any LibanPost branch where the payment is made. All these procedures, according to the government, should not take more than six days.
Previously, starting up a business in Lebanon entailed hiring a legal representative, collecting a series of forms and documents, visiting numerous government institutions, and paying several fees to these institutions. Companies seeking registration complained in the past that the procedure used to take more than 45 days just to get a stamp of approval from the government.
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, Finance Minister Jihad Azour, Justice Minister Charles Rizk, Justice Minister, Economy and Trade Minister Sami Haddad, LibanPost board chairman Khalil Daoud and a representative of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) signed an agreement at the Grand Serail Friday which aims to cut the time, cost, and complexity of the registration process by providing a simple guide to be followed by both local business owners and foreign concerns that wish to open new branches within the country.
Lebanon ranks 132nd in the 2007 “Doing Business” report prepared by the IFC, the private-sector arms of the World Bank. The report provides measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 178 countries.
According to the report, it takes an average of 46 days to register a business in Lebanon, with an average cost of 94 percent of annual income per capita, compared to 11 days for registration and an average cost of 25 percent in Tunisia.
