During the Israeli occupation/destruction of Lebanon, many world leaders vowed to help once the conflict ended. Now that a ceasefire is in place and international forces are being deployed in southern Lebanon, there is an added focus on how to rebuild what has been leveled. Tunisia’s president has already taken the lead by calling for an urgent Arab Leaders summit. In the West, Sweden is organizing a “donor conference” in which an estimated 60 countries and aid agencies will be attending.

Over the past decade, $50 billion (£26bn) was used to rebuild Lebanon after the 1975-1989 civil war left it in pieces. Much of the roads, power lines, sports centers, schools, hospitals, and airports, which were built during that period, are now in ruin after the most recent wave of Israeli aggression. Not only will reconstruction be financially problematic, but the work itself will be logistically hard to achieve since basic power supplies are still in need of restoration.

There are an estimated 1 million refugees in Lebanon, 20 percent of whom have had their homes destroyed. Finding or building homes for these displaced families will be a more costly operation than in the previous war. The reconstruction of the commercial sector also poses a huge problem since many factories have been leveled by Israel. Most foreign investors have fled. The tourism sector, which until recently had up to 1.6 million visitors, will be in for a long battle to regain business.

Still, those with shares in cement and steel seem optimistic that this tragedy will be economically beneficial to them. Yasser Hassanein of Dynamic Securities in Egypt said, “Maybe the cement companies and the steel companies will be able to export quite a bit into Lebanon on the back of this peace initiative that’s going on.” Keep on eye out for Halliburton.

source
thanks to DarkAngelJG for the story