François Sporrer, head of the regional economic service for the Middle East at the French embassy in Lebanon. (Credit: Phillipe Hage Boutros/L'Orient-Le Jour)
On Aug. 4, 2020, an explosion at the port of Beirut ravaged the city. It turned quay no.9 into a huge hole and killed more than 200 people. In the aftermath of the blast, several rehabilitation projects were put forward by local and foreign players to rehabilitate and even rethink the port area. So far, none of the projects have fallen through, and authorities have still not cleared away the wreckage and clutter at the port.
“A year and a half ago, caretaker Public Works Minister Ali Hamieh told us that he was not satisfied with the various proposals and asked if France could draw up a more pragmatic, more concrete plan, which would also be in line with the financial resources available to Lebanon,” said François Sporrer, head of the regional economic office for the Middle East at the French Embassy.
In a meeting with journalists in Beirut, to which L’Orient-Le Jour was invited, Sporrer said France had commissioned three companies to come up with proposals for the rehabilitation of the port area, at a cost ranging between $50 million and $100 million, which could be achieved in three to four years and financed directly by the port. This budget is lower than most of the other projects put forward, some of which would cost billions of dollars.
The details of the plan, which the Beirut Port Authority and Hamieh approved, will be unveiled at an event that will be held at the port on March 13. The public works minister, the French Ambassador to Lebanon Hervé Magro, and the Chairman of the Port Authority Omar Itani will be present at the event.
Funded by the French government, this potential master plan for the port rehabilitation was designed by Artelia, a French construction engineering firm operating in the maritime infrastructure sector and Egis, a road and airport operator. Électricité de France (EDF) was also consulted. The final choices were guided by experts with the Beirut Port Authority.
On March 13, France will hand over to Lebanon the detailed master plan, the model documents needed to enable authorities to rapidly launch the calls for tender required for work contacts and the safety assessment report produced by a French expert who found that the port no longer meets international standards and recommended taking remedial action.
The work covers the entire port area, except for the container terminal operated by French shipping giant CMA CGM. According to Sporrer, the firm, which is founded and run by the Saadeh family has already invested “almost $30 million” of its own money in this part of the infrastructure that is now operational, “which is not part of the master plan.”
The area held by the Army, located towards downtown and the perimeter of the explosion, is also excluded from the master plan. “Apart from repairing the quay, the plan does not involve the impact zone and the silos. It’s up to the Lebanese to decide what to do with them, whether to leave a memory or erect a monument,” said Sporrer. However, it is estimated that the work will involve half of the port area which stretches over 1.2 million square meters.
The proposed work is divided into three sections.
The first part covers rehabilitation and repair work, including that of Quay no 9. Without providing figures, Sporrer indicated that the work at Quay no 9 would be the most complex and the most costly.
The second part focuses on the layout (or zoning) of the port and internal traffic routes, to make it run smoothly. The idea here is to help improve the processing time for goods, which is currently too long in Lebanon, Sporrer said.
The third part, which will be handled by EDF, mainly involves deploying as much photovoltaic capacity as possible on the roofs of the buildings to provide most of the “14 to 15 megawatts” that are required for the infrastructure to operate. One option is to install solar panels on the breakwater. According to Sporrer, EDF considers this option to be viable and “very profitable,” although the panels will have to be replaced “every four years” given their exposure to sea currents.
The plan is expected to include the construction of a new area to house grain silos, a passenger terminal, the development of the existing basins and the reorganization of the various access gates to the port area. Details will be unveiled on March 13. What is certain is the plan focuses solely on the port area and does not address access issues to the port, which is located at the heart of Beirut and where traffic is already an issue.
The implementation of this master plan will only start if “three prerequisites that are part of the Lebanese authorities’ responsibility” are met, said Sporrer.
“First of all, the area needs to be cleared,” he said, adding that the Port Authority launched ten days ago an initial call for tenders to get rid of the scrap metal. “This is a good start,” he said.
“The second element is financing. The range provided to finance the work is not that large, and the Port Authority has the advantage of earning money and being able to keep part of its own revenues. It currently pays 80 percent to the government and retains 20 percent from the various fees and taxes it gets,” he said. “The cabinet could temporarily authorize the authority to withhold a slightly higher percentage of its revenue in order to finance the work. This is one of the solutions.”
Sporrer stressed that Lebanon has little choice but to finance the work itself, given that international donors, including France, will not pay a penny before Lebanon signs an agreement with the International Monetary Fund.
At last, Lebanon must reform the regulatory framework governing its ports. A draft law on the ports is in the drawers of the Lebanese Parliament, and aims to transform the Port of Beirut into a commercial company with the status of a port authority. This reform could eventually convince companies, other than CMA CGM, to operate the port.
France has so far invested €7 million in various port rehabilitation operations — clearing operations, donating a container scanner, managing grain lost in the destruction of silos and financing the master plan that will be put forth on March 13. Sporrer said France insisted that the World Bank release a $2 million grant financed by the Lebanon Financing Facility (LFF) to replace the customs IT system, which is at the end of its rope. Customs currently collects 60 percent of the Lebanese state’s total tax revenues.
This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour. Translation by Joelle El Khoury.