The Extraordinary General Assembly of the Lebanese Business Leaders Association (RDCL) was held on Wednesday, January 12, 2022, at 5:30 P.M. in Citea Hotel – Achrafieh, in order to vote on amending the association’s statutes and bylaws.

With a quorum of 75%, businessmen and women voted unanimously in favor of the amendments which were adopted.

This vote constitutes an important shift for the business community, and a defining moment for the future of the association and the entire private sector, where the members exert efforts to make the liberal private sector a pillar upon which the Lebanese nation will be built. The changes made to the statutes and bylaws comprise several basic matters and were shared in a remarkable event following the election of the current administrative board headed by Mr. Nicolas Boukather.

This change leads to numerous articles, some of which we will enumerate. First, changing the Arabic name of the association, by officially adding next to “businessmen”, “women”, who constitute a cornerstone of society in general and the private sector in particular. Second, the door to membership in the association was opened for non-resident Lebanese, while the association is now able to open branches abroad and connect residents with expatriates, in addition to redrafting the group’s vision and goals amidst the ongoing collapse and consolidating the members’ values in the bylaws. Third, new and advanced standards of accountability and transparency were introduced, and the principles of electronic governance were adopted, in addition to other important changes that include, for example, promoting the role of youth in business by lowering the minimum age of membership to 21 years and establishing a general council in addition to a mediation committee of wise. The term of the presidency was also changed, and this constitutes an unfamiliar and unusual phenomenon in the history of Lebanon, as the president, who could previously be elected for three consecutive terms, can now be elected for two consecutive terms at most.

After the vote and the unanimous approval of the statutes and bylaws, the President of the association, Mr. Nicolas Boukather, called, in light of the stifling economic, social and political crisis and the unprecedented collapse, the private sector to unite and stressed the need to approach the existing situation with a new vision, based on a comprehensive approach that begins with the private sector’s demand for a civil state, neutrality, decentralization, and digital management that improves in transparency and fights corruption. An open country that preserves its historical Arab roots as well as its openness to the world, east and west, and builds its future on a culture of peace and on a productive and responsible economic liberalism. A country whose foreign policy is based on economic priorities. A sovereign and free nation, whose people gather around their national army and their just and independent judiciary, which, together, and exclusively, constitute an impenetrable fortress to maintain security and safety, and which are essential to the success and sustainability of a new charter for Lebanon, and the establishment of a new social and economic model that encourages reinvestment and contributes to a gradual recovery, away from an unproductive rentier economy and a shadow economy.

The suggested comprehensive solution requires the participation of all components of society and their convergence around the most successful economic model, represented by the private sector, which only united is capable of rebuilding on solid and firm foundations. The association also believes that missing this opportunity, which may be the last, would validate Lebanon as a failed state, from which its citizens flee, and which unfortunately will lead to the loss of the remaining productive sectors in the country, thus exposing Lebanon’s entire existence to real dangers.

The Lebanese Business Leaders Association (RDCL) is determined to draw up a pioneering roadmap based on common values and the spirit of true citizenship, away from sectarianism, and to gather all the Lebanese economic components around this vision, and a code of conduct and ethics in order to keep pace with the current stage with a unified vision that paves the way for an exit from the status quo towards citizenship and modernity.

Finally, the president called on all businessmen in Lebanon and abroad, to join RDCL ranks, and partake in active participation, unity, and innovation.

The Lebanese Business Leaders Association (RDCL) was established in 1986 with the aim of uniting businessmen and women from different sectors in order to protect Lebanon’s mission. Through its hard work and its reputation as a think tank and a powerful lobby for economic transformation, the Lebanese Business Leaders Association (RDCL) affirmed its institutional role and cemented it in public life and within economic organizations as an interlocutor with the local and international community.