APPLE-C, Infrastructure, Economic Update, Competition, Competition and Trade

Competition Before Contracts: Rethinking Lebanon’s Approach to Infrastructure

16:21 | 31 October 2025LIMS output
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competition

Lebanon’s core infrastructure sectors remain mired in financial distress and operational breakdowns, leaving vital public services underfunded and persistently unreliable. The cabinet has routinely sidestepped the Public Procurement Law, invoking “urgency” to issue direct awards of contracts and circumvent competitive tendering, further eroding transparency and confidence in the system.

LIMS argued that the priority must be to liberalise sectors wherever feasible and allow multiple providers to compete on equal footing. Key sectors including electricity, water, telecoms and waste management remain dominated by state monopolies and crippled by decades of political interference and underinvestment. Opening these sectors to competition is the only credible path to improving service quality and attracting long-term private capital.

Only in cases of natural monopoly, such as electricity transmission, should public contracts be considered. Even then, they must operate strictly within the transparent framework set out by the Public Procurement Law and under the oversight of the Public Procurement Authority (PPA). Attempts to bypass open tenders through contracting a single bidder continue to undermine transparency, deter investors and weaken public confidence. The PPA has begun publishing tender documents, clarifications and results online to ensure equal access for qualified bidders and reinforce institutional credibility.

For Lebanon, meaningful reform will come not from shortcuts or selective partnerships but from embedding competition and transparency at the centre of public assets. By enforcing open markets and robust oversight, the country can begin to restore investor confidence, improve essential services and lay the groundwork for sustainable private-sector dynamic.

  • The Partnership Between The Public And Private Sectors Saves Vital Sectors But With Clear Conditions. October 1, 2025: Aljadeed TV, Video interview (AR)
  • “Speed” As An Excuse To Circumvent “Public Procurement”… While Competition Remains Key. October 28, 2025: Al Safa News, Article (AR)