Within the framework of the European Union-funded “Promotion of Social Justice” project; the Ministry of Labor, in collaboration with the GOPA (Group of Policy Advisers) published a report aiming to shed light on the Lebanese digital sector.
The report was built on the outcome of the face-to-face interviews conducted on a total of 149 company owners/top managers.
The study revealed that the digital sector in Lebanon provides enormous opportunities for the Lebanese economy; and acts as its 3rd largest contributor.
Nurturing the sector can increase employment by 15% which would add a 5% expansion in the overall economy.
However, the report highlighted the fact that almost half of respondents (46%), stated that they did not employ women. Moreover, 23% of businesses did not employ any youth members in their company even though this sector is supposed to be youth-oriented. In addition to that, many companies which are registered offshore are benefitting from cheap labor and outsourcing their tasks to foreigners, specifically from countries like Pakistan which is known as one of some major destinations to outsource digital development and coding work.
Despite the BDL 331 circular which supported the digital industry, the report stated some skills gaps within the sector, namely communication skills, Time Management, Teamwork Abilities, Communication, presentation skills, software development as well as Information Technology and CCE skills.
Also, regarding the number of skilled employees, the report finds that Micro and small businesses had a higher percentage of skilled employees than large businesses that needed more manual laborers for installation, maintenance, and reparation of systems.
Projected expansion plans
Source: Ministry of Labor- Technical Assistance to Support Promotion of Social Dialogue in Lebanon