Bassil Welcomes Cabinet’s ‘Positive Gesture,’ but Asks for its Funding
Energy Minister Jebran Bassil hailed on Wednesday what he called the “positive gesture” of the cabinet to lease power-generating ships to help reduce severe electricity rationing in the country.
“What happened yesterday was a good gesture by the government in terms of reforming the electricity” sector, Bassil said in a press conference.
“A decision to lease the vessels to back the production of electricity was made yesterday,” he confirmed, adding the rehabilitation of the Zouk and Jiyyeh power stations was necessary.
The cabinet has called for speeding up the process after tasking the finance ministry and the Council for Development and Reconstruction with asking donors to guarantee the necessary funding.
Bassil stressed that a $1.2 billion dollar project adopted by the government last September to generate 700 Megawatts of electricity needs the funding of the Lebanese authorities first.
International “funds and the World Bank can later fund the projects,” he said.
Meanwhile, the committee of workers and bill collectors at the state-run power company, Electricite du Liban, called for a strike next Tuesday over the government’s failure to meet their demands.
It said a sit-in will be held at the seaside entrance of the company at 10:00 am Tuesday.
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