Lebanon has always been an open economy, proud of its economic freedom and hospitable to investments, both domestic and foreign. Investment, in turn, deserves to be welcomed since it is the most important component of expenditures, contributing to capital formation and to both employment and output. In the past three years, investment in Lebanon averaged close to 28% of GDP, more than 5% higher than the average of the preceding years. Also, more than 50% of these investments was in the real estate sector – including its residential, commercial, and hospitality subsectors. These were driven by higher real estate prices that averaged 30% or more annually, easier access to credit supported by subsidized measures from the Central Bank, and growth in the travel and tourist sector that constitutes close to $5 billion of the economy and the bulk of net service exports. The investment climate in Lebanon has been notably upgraded with the improved political and security situation. It is also characterised by the best access to credit facilities in the MENA region, according to the World Bank. The ratio of private credit to GDP is among the highest in the region at 80%, and private credit has grown by more than 20% annually in the past two years to reach about $32 billion at present. What is interesting is that the share distribution of credit to the various economic sectors is almost identical to the contribution of each sector to GDP: 6% for agriculture, 9.5% for industry, 10.5% for construction, 23% for trade, etc.. Regarding investment opportunities in Lebanon, they arise also in areas other than real estate and tourism. Being a small open economy, Lebanon’s limited market entails expanding production and exports to regional markets; in this respect, industries that constitute the major exports represent areas where competitive advantage has been established, and are prime candidates for new and additional investments. These range from precious metals and medium-technology products to chemicals and processed food. Other areas include the primary sectors – especially telecommunications and energy – where both private and social returns are potentially quite high. Of course, investments are not confined to the real sector only for there are ample opportunities in the financial sector as well. Besides safe and rewarding bank deposits, opportunities exist in the stock market where the prices of “blue-chip” companies are widely viewed as undervalued and promise considerable gains. There are also opportunities for individual and institutional investors in mutual funds, whose portfolios contain financial instruments from Lebanon and elsewhere in the region. In this regard, I am happy to say that BLOM Bank has been a leader in launching such funds in Lebanon, the latest of which is the Pyramid Balanced Fund. As to Lebanese expatriates, they have been a consistent support and impetus to the Lebanese economy. This is perhaps best manifested by the flow of remittances that average close to $7 billion annually; in addition to the fact that expatriates constitute moré than 40% of the demand for real estate and 70% of tourist activity. They also undertake a respected amount of FDI – which averaged a total of $2.6 billion recently – and a significant part of the $16.5 billion of non-resident deposits at commercial banks. Expatriates also play an “intangible” role in terms of their contacts and relationships between their country of residence and Lebanon, generating in the process a wealth of economic and business spillovers. But although expatriates have an emotional attachment to the country, their investments nevertheless – and rightly so – are driven by fundamentals and sound business practices. This of course calls for more improvement in the business climate, so as to encourage increasing investments by both residents and expatriates alike in the various promising economic sectors.