ABOUT US

About GLI

In accordance with the objectives of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, and agriculture in Lebanon (FCCIAL) of promoting sustainable growth in the Lebanese economy,
And under the vision of its Chairman Mr. Mohamed Choucair who regards the private sector in Lebanon to be its most important economic pillar,

The Federation is proud to announce the establishment of the Global Lebanese Investors (GLI) association which includes the leading Lebanese investors in Lebanon and all around the globe.

Vision

To become the strongest network capable of adequately representing Lebanese businessmen who will play a major role in bringing Lebanon back as an economic capital in the region; and building strong alliances between Lebanese businessmen in Lebanon and abroad.

Mission

To enhance the role of the Lebanese businessman as an active and responsible factor in the growth and economic development of Lebanon, through coordinating the exchange of ideas and experiences, enhancing cooperation and joint investment opportunities both in Lebanon and abroad and encouraging job creation to fight unemployment

GLOBAL LEBANESE INVESTORS

Our Objectives

GLI was first launched with the aim of facilitating the establishment of investment funds between the Lebanese residing in Lebanon and abroad; and to provide a platform for entering the public sector in Lebanon with development projects within the legislative framework of the Private Public Partnership, especially in lights of the Cedre funds provided for the private sector support;

As the situation in Lebanon changed, and as the financial capacity of various Lebanese businesses began to suffer, GLI took the initiative to provide its members with the opportunity to meet with various Lebanese industrialists, franchisors, and businessmen from different sectors, in order to explore possible synergies across industries in the forms of mergers, acquisitions, capital injections and other forms of partnerships.

GLI remains to act in what serves in building strong alliances between Lebanese businessmen in Lebanon and abroad through:

  • Supporting, protecting, promoting and expanding the interests and objectives of Lebanese investors;
  • Providing a platform for Lebanese Investors around the world to connect and explore various possible joint cooperation opportunities;
  • Acting as a link between the council members and governmental bodies to serve the best interests of the national economy;
  • Providing governmental entities with opinions and suggestions on policies, agreements and laws relating to international investments.
  • Building and sharing a database on promising investment opportunities and developing preliminary studies for which members share their findings;
  • Providing accurate analysis on the investment environment in global markets;
  • Assessing the effects of economic measures imposed by host investment countries on Lebanese economic interests;
  • Taking any action necessary in order to achieve these stated objectives, and initiating any range of activities that aim to promote the Lebanese investment opportunities in Lebanon and abroad.

 

 

Our Values

We attract and include Lebanese leaders in the business world who make an impact on the community and inspire and motivate the upcoming generations by example.

Our core values allow for the sustainability and improvement of the investment environment, these are:

• Professionalism.           • Integrity
• Transparency                • Responsibility
• Positive Impact             • Continuous Improvement

ESTABLISHING A NETWORK FOR PROMOTING INVESTMENT

In efforts to achieve the objectives of the council in promoting the investment environment in Lebanon and supporting the Lebanese investors around the globe, GLI is working on building real bridges with government agencies, major investment companies, and similar councils worldwide.

This will allow the council to act as a major platform that undertakes the continuous communication with Lebanese investors and to become the economic and investment platform that contributes to strengthening the national economy.

OUR APPROACH

  • Holding annual general assembly meetings that include all GLI members in order to explore new ideas and potential opportunities;
  • Maintaining proper communication channels with various Lebanese investors worldwide;
  •  Establishing links with governmental and non-governmental bodies inside and outside the Country to promote joint investment opportunities;
  •  Participating in business delegations organized by the Chambers of Commerce and other entities that serve in promoting economic development and exploring new geographical areas for cooperation;
  •  Studying and making the necessary recommendations on policies affecting investments as needs arise;
    Providing information on promising opportunities as they exist

Our Values

We attract and include Lebanese leaders in the business world who make an impact on the community and inspire and motivate the upcoming generations by example.

Our core values allow for the sustainability and improvement of the investment environment, these are:

• Professionalism.           • Integrity
• Transparency                • Responsibility
• Positive Impact             • Continuous Improvement

Become a GLI Member

Mohamed Choucair
Chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Lebanon

We are proud to announce the inception of a new economic entity in Lebanon, the Global Lebanese Investors, which will join the Economic organizations in their role and mission to continually support the national economy and promote and develop the various economic and business sectors in Lebanon.


GLI as established by the Federation of Lebanese Chambers will play a major role in our economy due to the importance of investment and its role as a cornerstone for achieving economic growth and social stability by creating jobs.
For the first time in Lebanon, we were able to gather the elite of Lebanese businessmen in the country and abroad, in a coordinated manner allowing us to present them with all the investment opportunities to take part of individually or through partnerships for a stronger presence in face of the international competition.

The experience which Lebanese companies have and the good reputation and various success stories achieved throughout the world, make GLI a necessity to support and maintain these achievements, especially in this globalized world, which requires close cooperation and a more comprehensive view, in addition to developing synergies in order to hold a position in the upcoming investment opportunities on the national level.

Today, Lebanon is facing a golden opportunity after the success of Cedar conference and receiving around $ 12 billion for the development of the infrastructure; therefore, the private sector is supposed to prepare well in order to implement some of the projects included in the investment program of the Lebanese state.

In the same context, we are working hard to push for the development of investment laws in Lebanon such as the development of the Investment Promotion Law and the passage of a law to protect investment, as we want to address Lebanese investors worldwide with the language of reason in order to encourage them to invest in their home country.


It remains to be said that the Private Public Partnership Decree approval constitutes a fundamental pillar and a real opportunity for the development of the state and for increasing its competitiveness through increasing the efficiency of its services and reducing its cost. Therefore, we look forward to the role which GLI will play especially with its members being the top investors in Lebanon and Worldwide in this national development.

I am confident that the Global Lebanese Investors, and thanks to its members and especially its President, our friend, Mr. Jack Al Sarraf, will take a leading position in the Lebanese economic activities and will be able to achieve its objectives, serving our country and its economy.

Jacques Jean Sarraf
Chairman of GLI

Today, we launch with a group of leading businessmen the Lebanese Global Investors, an initiative developed from a joint vision with the friend Mohammed Choucair, the Chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Lebanon.

As much as I am honored to be the Chairman of GLI, I am also feeling the responsibility towards achieving the aspirations placed on this association.

GLI is a comprehensive framework for the Lebanese investment potential, and it places itself at the service of the economic development of the country.

It is a global network of Lebanese Investors and businessmen, who share the love for their country, believe in its future and have a unified vision of it.

GLI initially started to include around a hundred people from Lebanon, and 900 from the Lebanese living abroad.
These members will establish investment funds to finance and implement major infrastructure projects, in partnership with the Lebanese state, under the Public Private Partnership Law.

GLI provides its clients with guaranteed procedures and procurements that will protect their funds by strict scientific and international standards and looks forward to a leading role and position in the Lebanese economy.

Our ambition is limitless. We are truly partners in a globalization process for Lebanon and GLI aims at having a branch in every city or country as per need.

I am with you on this new challenge with great hope.
First of all, I am encouraged by the confidence of the investors, who were quick to join which indicates their confidence in Lebanon and in GLI.

We promise you to strengthen the trust of GLI, its commitment, its mechanisms, its continuity, its openness, its democracy and all of its modern features. We promise that GLI will have a database that will meet the level of aspirations of the Lebanese investors locally and abroad, containing information which scientifically identifies investment opportunities and having an efficient administrative system.

We promise that the headquarters of GLI in Beirut will become a continuous work force and a mandatory gateway for anyone requesting information on investment in Lebanon.

I feel a great responsibility towards the upcoming generations to whom we owe the responsibility to establish good grounds for investment and towards the Lebanese energies spread throughout the world as a result of the migration; those Lebanese whom have marked a lot of success stories over the hundreds of years despite the pain and suffering of having to be abroad.

We promise that GLI will contribute to strengthening the relationship between the Lebanese in Lebanon and those abroad, and to giving the Lebanese economy a momentum that will be reflected in increased productivity, employment and growth.

I can only conclude with thanking my brother and friend, Mr. Mohamed Choucair, the Chairman of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Lebanon, who, thanks to his encouragement and support, GLI was established, and I am confident that he will be with us and by our side in whatever position he fills.

Prays are to our beloved country for a safe and prosperous future.
Long lives Lebanon, residents and expats…

Ziad Hayek
Secretary general of the higher council for privatization of the republic of lebanon

Opportunity for investors … and for Lebanon

In spite of what is currently being said about the state of the Lebanese economy, Lebanese business men and women, whether residing in their own country or dispersed in the countries around the world, know that the cloud is gray, not black, and that it is fleeting. .
This is not a rhetoric similar to those of the political platforms. It is based on a set of objective data which promises economic transformation and a stage of recovery, although this improvement takes three or four years to crystallize, and for its features to begin to appear.

The first fruits of the oil and gas sector, the new element in the Lebanese economic scene, will begin to emerge during this period, either in terms of income, or in terms of the investments that Lebanon will attract, and the new sectors that will be created in this regard. All of this will lead to an escalating economic movement that will inject new blood into the body of Economic development.

This development will intersect with another important factor: the active role that Lebanon is expected to play as a starting point for the Re-construction of Syria and as a key participant through its Lebanese companies.

In addition to this, Lebanon is preparing for a number of investment projects in accordance with the program set up by the Lebanese government and presented at the Cedar conference in Paris, these projects will be implemented on the basis of public private partnership.

These positive factors looming on Lebanon’s horizon make Lebanon an attractive destination for investors, first and foremost the Lebanese investors.

The infrastructure projects program at the Cedar conference provides excellent opportunities for these investors and enables the development of these structures, which is conducive to improving the business climate in Lebanon, which also benefits Lebanese investors in their other private projects.

The Public-Private Partnership Law is an encouraging framework for investors to finance infrastructure projects.

If the Lebanese Global Investors is a framework for networking between Lebanese investors in Lebanon and abroad, the Public Private Partnership Law acts as a safety net ensuring investors that partnerships in these projects will be best served.

This law, which was developed according to the best international standards, provided a legislative framework for the adoption of partnership projects through defining the necessary procedures for the design of public-private partnership projects and for the selection of a private partner.

The law ensures full transparency in each project and allows the public sector to be treated with great professionalism with partnership projects.

We call on Lebanese investors and people of Lebanese origin not to miss this golden opportunity for them and for Lebanon, and not to hesitate to contribute effectively to this important development that Lebanon needs in various sectors such as transport, water, sewage, electricity, communications, solid waste, in addition to the Special Economic Zone in Tripoli.

The first projects currently under way are the Rafic Hariri International Airport expansion project in Beirut, the National Information Center project and the Khaldeh and Al-Aqiba highway project.

We are confident that the GLI will be an excellent framework for exploring opportunities and benefiting from them in the best way possible, by establishing investment funds or establishing alliances between companies, we are able to enhance our potential to win projects and compete with international companies.