Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib. (Credit: Dalati and Nohra)
BEIRUT – Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib held a meeting with Prime Minister Najib Mikati to discuss plans to cut the ministry’s budget in order to reduce government spending.
Here’s what we know:
• Bou Habib said he envisions cutting the gross rent allowance for diplomatic missions from $13.6 million annually to $7.9 million.
• Diplomats’ salaries will be reduced by $2.6 million, constituting an average pay cut of 9 percent across the diplomatic corps.
• The allowance for parties, feasts and other events will be slashed to $100,000 from $1.8 million
• Lebanon will aim to reduce its contributions to regional and international institutions from $7.4 million to $2.4 million
• With these cuts and others, Bou Habib said the ministry will reduce expenses by $18 million per year. The ministry’s overall budget is about $115 million per year, he said.
• Bou Habib added he will submit a draft decree to the Council of Ministers to close some diplomatic missions abroad. Eleven candidates have been identified, he said, the closure of which would reduce ministry expenses by $4.2 million annually. That would bring the total cuts to approximately $22 million per year.