In complete denial of the accumulated and intractable crises we live in, the Azm movement proposed a law requesting the approval of a 43$ million loan agreement between the Lebanese Republic and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. The project aims to improve access to data by updating the digital land registry and cadastre as well as the state land inventory, in addition to real estate appraisal. However, this proposal comes at a suspicious time, amidst the economic meltdown and the deterioration of the real estate sector, and appears as a mere attempt to reinforce the rent-based economic model.
In addition to ranking low amongst what should be the state’s current priorities, this project claims to make real estate information and data available to the public, while every citizen is extremely aware of the near impossibility of receiving any file from public administrations. Indeed, no citizen has ever experienced any transparency or effectiveness in Lebanese public administrations, and has only encountered stumbling blocks and the impossibility of accessing any information or files in those administrations. As such, the question remains: Who will benefit from this loan, in the absence of any serious proposal to address and confront the crisis as a comprehensive whole?