Dr. Basil Fuleihan

	Account of achievements of Basil Fuleihan as minister of economy and trade: Oct. 2000-April 2003.

Dr. Basil Fuleihan was born in 1963 in Lebanon. He attended the American University of Beirut where he majored in Economics. He graduated with distinction in 1984 and was the recipient of the prestigious Penrose Award. Dr. Fuleihan earned a Masters degree in International and Development Economics from Yale University, followed by a PhD in Economics from Columbia University in New York. His doctorate dissertation was entitled “Customs Unions, Growth and Economic Diversification”.

Dr. Fuleihan began his professional career in 1988 as Advisor and then Senior Advisor to the Saudi Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund. In 1993, he moved to Lebanon to serve, until 1999, as economic advisor to the Minister of Finance and as Director for the IBRD/UNDP Revenue Enhancement and Fiscal Management Project. Between 1994 and 2000, Dr. Fuleihan was a lecturer in Economics at AUB.

Dr. Fuleihan was elected to the Lebanese Parliament in October 2000, and became the economic advisor to the Prime Minister Rafic Hariri.
He served as Minister of Economy and Trade between 2000 and 2003 and worked on the development and modernization of the ministry. During his tenure as Minister, he accelerated Lebanon’s accession to the World Trade Organization and negotiated then signed on behalf of the Lebanese Government the Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Agreement. Dr. Fuleihan acted as the chief architect of Lebanon’s economic and financial program presented to the Paris I and Paris II meetings (February 1, 2001 and November 23, 2002). In March 2002, he supervised preparations for, and subsequently chaired, the Economic and Social Council of the Arab League meeting that preceded the Arab Summit meeting in Beirut. Moreover, he launched the modernization of a number of economic and trade-related laws, in particular in the fields of consumer protection, competition, food safety, e-commerce and intellectual property rights.

In 2003, Dr. Fuleihan became the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on National Economy, Trade, Industry, and Planning. During that period, he spearheaded the enactment of economic and trade-related legislation he had proposed to Parliament during his tenure as minister.