Partnership for Lebanon

1
Partnership for Lebanon

• Aly Harakeh
• Microsoft Lebanon
• November 10 11, 2007

2
Introduction

• The Partnership for Lebanon was established by
  U.S. business leaders in September, 2006 to
  assist the reconstruction efforts in Lebanon and
  to help the people of Lebanon find the path to
  long-term stability and economic growth. The
  Partnerships leaders include
• Steve Ballmer, CEO, Microsoft Corporation
• Craig Barrett, Chairman, Intel Corporation
• John Chambers, President and CEO, Cisco Systems,
  Inc.
• Yousif Ghafari, Chairman, GHAFARI, Inc.
• Dr. Ray Irani, Chairman, President and CEO,
  Occidental Petroleum Corporation
•  
• The Partnership is working with businesses in
  the United States, Lebanon and across the globe
  to forge public-private partnerships designed to
  expand the reach of education and workforce
  training, create jobs and build Lebanons
  technology infrastructure.

3
Situation Challenges

• This September, the Partnership for Lebanon
  celebrated its first anniversary and despite the
  political and economic hardships that affected
  Lebanon, the Partnership has made great strides
  in laying the ground work for its projects
  including stronger ties with the countrys
  decision makers and influencers, professional
  business associations, trade organizations and
  chambers of commerce and industry.
• The partnership sponsored a number of studies to
  identify niche projects where ICT plays a role of
  enabler as well as other ICT programs that
  maximizes the potential of Lebanons strengths.
• The precarious security situation continues to
  pose a major obstacle in the development of the
  countrys ICT infrastructure as well as
  accelerating the adoption of ICT in small and
  medium businesses.
• The political standoff between the ruling
  majority and the opposition also weighs heavily
  on the economy and delays necessary legislation
  to speed the privatization and liberalization
  process necessary to introduce better and more
  competitive ICT services.

4
Workstreams

• Five PfL Workstreams
• WORKSTREAM I Job Creation / Private Sector
  Revival (SMB Fast Start)
• WORKSTREAM II Workforce Training Internships
  and Student to Business (S2B)
• WORKSTREAM III Education (School in a Box, IT
  Academies)
• WORKSTREAM IV Connected Communities / Connected
  Government (PICTAs and E-Government)
• WORKSTREAM V ICT Infrastructure (Broadband
  Lebanon)

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WORKSTREAM I Job Creation / Private Sector
Revival (SMB Fast Start)

• Objective Promote the development of the
  private sector for future job creation and
  growth.
• Business Matching The US Chamber of Commerce
  hosted 2 events on behalf of the Partnership in
  each of Washington DC and New York City on June
  12 13 in an effort to introduce the US private
  sector to opportunities in Lebanon.
• SME Enablement Microsoft has stepped forward to
  take the lead on a new initiative for SME
  Enablement which will include an executive
  mentorship program, business acceleration
  training, and entrepreneurial seminars.  
• Sector Study Occidental Petroleum funded a study
  with AUB to identify optimal sectors for
  investment which should be completed in October
  2007.
• Equity Investment
• Following Intels investment of 500K in
  Berytech, Cisco is actively working on finalizing
  its upcoming initial investment in the Lebanese
  private sector

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WORKSTREAM IIWorkforce Training Internships and
Student to Business (S2B)

• Objective Provide critical skills training and
  knowledge transfer to Lebanons youth, leading to
  new business development and enhanced job
  opportunities in Lebanon.
• U.S. Internships
• Cisco is currently hosting 16 Interns in San Jose
  and Phoenix. They will complete their program on
  October 14th. They have been involved with
  LebNet, TechWadi and Lebanese American
  Association. They have organized and presented
  at 3 cultural events at Cisco. They have
  published 4 Get Connected newsletters. They
  have l met with several Cisco Executives,
  including Randy Pond, SVP of Operations for
  Cisco.. 10 out of the 16 interns will complete
  their CCNA by the end of the program. In
  addition, they have attended project management
  and business seminar along with the Phoenix team
  who joined them via Telepresence. The interns
  have taken advantage of the many business and
  technical classes online t through Ciscos EMS.
• The 4 Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI)
  interns at Intel have successfully completed
  their program last month and have all returned to
  their precious work.
• GHAFARI is currently managing 2 Interns in Qatar
  and 1 Intern in the US.

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WORKSTREAM II (Contd) Workforce Training
Internships and Student to Business (S2B)

• Lebanon Internships
• Cisco announced on August 6th that the Lebanese
  government will work with the Council for
  Development and Reconstruction (CDR) to proceed
  with implementing the grant for 25 CCNA graduates
  to be placed in IT related positions in various
  government institutions over 11 months. AmidEast
  has begun advertising and recruiting these
  candidates from Cisco Networking Academy
  graduates. The first group will start by early
  October.
• In addition, Cisco will place 14 interns over 11
  months in the Lebanon Private Sector including
  Ciscos Beirut office and at Cisco Partners.
• Together with its partners, Microsoft is working
  on a plan to identify, train and place 50
  Lebanese interns.

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WORKSTREAM IIIEducation (School in a Box, IT
Academies)

• Objective Expand the network IT skills of
  Lebanons youth for improved job opportunity.
• Professional Academies  
• 5 Cisco Networking Academies opened in July 2007
• Targeting 16 Public High Schools to launch Cisco
  IT Essentials (ITE)
• MOU signed between the Ministry of Education and
  the Hariri foundation to enable the introduction
  of the ITE program in the 16 selected schools
• 8 instructors trained to date. 3 schools will
  start the program in the Summer 07 while the
  other 13 schools will be ready by September 07
• Adding 7 Cisco Certified Networking Associate
  (CCNA) Academies with focus on Vocational
  training. Targeting a start date of September
• Adding advanced technology education to 10
  currently successful Academies (5 Security and
  5 Wireless academies).
• Microsoft IT Academies currently putting plan
  together for determining how many will open in
  2007  
• Education
• Draft proposal of the School in a Box was
  reviewed by the Partnership team on September 5th
• The team is working on next steps, follow-up took
  place on 3rd week in October

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WORKSTREAM IV Connected Communities / Connected
Government (PICTAs and E-Government)

• Objective Assist the Lebanese people and
  government in long term IT-based transformation
  projects for improving communications, providing
  more efficient delivery of services to citizens,
  and providing community-based access, education
  and development.
•  
• Connected Community Implementation
• Integrated Mercy Corps and Ijma3 management team
  created
• All Community Centers upgraded to PICTA standards
• 5 Community Mobilizers and 5 local NGO reps
  received training and certification in community
  mobilization techniques.
• Survey of ICT knowledge and access conducted in
  all 5 locations by survey teams trained by MC
• Telemedicine Intel is providing 6-months of
  WiMax connectivity in Nabatieh and Bourj al
  Barajneh.
• Created Focus groups in all 5 locations with
  youth, women, businesspeople, and government
  officials to discuss ICT access and potential.
• Community Leadership Circles (CLC) meetings being
  held to present survey and focus group findings
  brainstorm on projects to meet identified needs.
• One project proposal for each location presented
  to National Advisory Committee.
•  
• Connected Government Implementation
• Donated 2 Telepresence Suites to Government,
  implementation scheduled for February 2008
• Conducted limited needs assessments with various
  ministries
• In the process of defining engagement to help
  with revising the e-strategy for Lebanon

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WORKSTREAM V ICT Infrastructure (Broadband
Lebanon)

• Objective Support the establishment of a
  broadband infrastructure in Lebanon as a
  foundation for improved communications and
  e-commerce, benefiting Lebanons future economic
  growth. Telecom infrastructure will benefit all
  the Workstreams mentioned above.
• 14 September 2007 TRA Workshop
• Attendees the 5 members of the
  TRA, representatives from the Office of the Prime
  Minister, representatives from Cisco, Intel,
  Microsoft
• The Partnership will present the National
  Broadband Strategy Draft 2.0
• The vision to help Lebanon implement the most
  advanced communications infrastructure of the
  Middle-East
• Value Case (revenues vs. cost of network)
  business case for a privately funded network
• Architecture Choices network options for Urban,
  Metro, and Access with assumptions on
  geographical coverage
• Regulatory Framework - TRA needs to promulgate
  and enforce balanced pro-competitive rules and
  regulations in order for the strategy to succeed
• Wireless Broadband Standards Regulations
• Potential applications and services