While the government committed to start implementing a plan to support the land transport sector early this month, the Prime Minister disavowed his promise to the land transport sector, noting that the latter has canceled the strike which was scheduled for last October 27 based on Mikati’s promises.

The Head of the Land Transport Sector Federations and Unions Bassam Tlais told Sawt Beirut International that “the plan had not been implemented, as promised by the Prime Minister, although the $55 million were secured from the World Bank loan to the public transport sector, according to the Minister of Public Works.” The plan stipulated that public taxi drivers will be supported until June 2022, with a can of petrol per day at a price of 100,000 LBP for public cars, and a can and a half of petrol for minibus per day, in order to reduce the service tariff to 10,000 LBP for cars and the 5,000 LBP for vans. Tlais explained that the public taxi tariff will be raised today, without any support, to more than 30,000 LBP.

Ahead of the festive season, the precautionary measures for the Corona virus have been intensified, which constitutes an additional obstacle on touristic firms that are waiting for the arrival of expatriates and tourists to enhance the movement in restaurants, cafes and amusement parks.

The Committee to Follow up on Corona decided to impose a curfew for non-vaccinated people from 7 pm till 6 am starting from December 17th until January 9, 2022. It also banned all gatherings and parties with a capacity exceeding fifty percent of the capacity of the place, and obliged touristic institutions, restaurants, and hotels to refuse receiving visitors who did not receive at least one dose of vaccine, or a negative PCR result that does not exceed 48 hours from its issuance.

To shed light on this issue, Khaled Nazha, Vice President of the Syndicate of Owners of Restaurants, Cafes and Nightclubs, joined us.