Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber. (Credit: NNA.)
Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber announced Monday that "work is underway for the installation of scanners, two at the port of Beirut and one at the port of Tripoli" (North Lebanon), specifying that they will be operational "in the near future."
Jaber was speaking from his office at the ministry during a meeting with a European Union delegation led by Alessandra Viezzer, head of cooperation at the EU delegation to Lebanon, in the presence of François Sporrer, head of the regional economic service for the Near East at the French embassy, and Uta Simon, head of the partnership department at the German embassy.
The minister specified that "the operational capacity of these scanners, which operate using artificial intelligence, reaches up to 60 containers per hour, while that of the previous equipment did not exceed 40 containers per day." He stressed that "the inspection of the contents of containers will be handled by the Lebanese Customs Directorate," while "the partner company, CMA CGM, will be exclusively responsible for the operation and maintenance of the equipment."
Jaber also announced that he had "signed on Monday a call for tenders in accordance with the procedures of the public procurement law, for the IT modernization of customs." He also mentioned "ongoing negotiations with several companies tasked with ensuring preliminary inspection and monitoring of goods destined for Lebanon, in order to limit attempts at fraud regarding prices and the nature of shipped products."
He specified that the funding for this call for tenders is provided by a joint grant of $2.1 million from the World Bank and the European Union. The minister said that an agreement has been reached to organize regular meetings with the ambassadors of EU countries to monitor the stages of the ongoing modernization process.
Jaber also said that he had forwarded the file on municipal allocations to the Ministry of the Interior "so that the directorate of municipalities can in turn handle their distribution." He finally announced the upcoming introduction of a "measure aiming to increase the amount of these allocations from fixed-line telephone revenues, because of the difficult financial situation faced by municipalities, particularly those that have been newly established and require immediate and rapid funding."
