Georges Corm. (Credit: georgescorm.com)
Lebanese historian and former Finance Minister Georges Corm passed away on Wednesday in Beirut, according to L'Orient-Le Jour. Born in 1940 in Alexandria, Egypt, Corm served in Salim Hoss's government from 1998 to 2000. Since 2018, he has focused on writing and academic teaching. He received several awards for his work, including the Liber Press Prize (Spain 2008), and in 2018, his latest book, La Nouvelle Question d’Orient, was awarded the "Prix de l’Essai" by the French Academy.
Corm studied at the Institut d'Études Politiques in Paris (1958-1961), earning a degree in public finance, and later obtained a doctorate in constitutional law from the University of Paris (1969). He authored numerous books in Arabic and French, translated into several languages (Italian, Spanish, Catalan, Romanian, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Turkish, Polish, German, Serbo-Croatian), and contributed to collective works and journals on Mediterranean and Arab economies.
He was one of the most influential authors for a generation of students in France and Lebanon, notably through his seminal work, Le Proche-Orient éclaté. A prolific author with a secular view on conflicts, he criticized the exaggeration of the divide between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
Economic and Financial Consultant
Corm began his public sector career in Lebanon in 1963 as an economist at the Ministry of Planning, later becoming an expert on monetary and financial issues at the Ministry of Finance (Central Bank Control and Coordination Department).
From 1969 to 1985, he continued his career in the banking sectors in Lebanon, France and Algeria.
From 1985 to 1998, he was based in Paris as an independent economic and financial consultant, working with clients such as the World Bank, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the European Union, the FAO, and the French Development Agency. He undertook numerous missions in about fifteen countries for these institutions, focusing on structural adjustment policies, improving budget management, evaluating aid programs for the EU and other development organizations, and public sector and banking sector reforms.