Transferring students, who are studying abroad, to Lebanon has always been a source of hardship to parents of these students wishing to relocate to Lebanon. Many complain of the slowness and complexity of the required procedures and the lack of guiding information at the Ministry of Education (MOE).

The recommendations that were developed included merging the two existing committees to eliminate redundancy and to speed up the process, creating a website that allows parents living abroad to access vital information such as documents needed before they travel, and producing a guide book to be available to parents who don’t have access to the Internet.

The Ministry of Education started implementation as of the end of 2003.

Import and Export procedures to and from the Port of Beirut are known to be complex, slow and a major source of complaint. Reviewing these procedures has become imperative for the Port of Beirut to position itself as a regional and international leading authority to facilitate trade to and from Lebanon.

All the steps of the import and export procedures were reviewed and documented and the areas to streamline were identified. However in view of the vital nature of the Port, which carries international economic dimensions, it was decided to use the services and recommendations of a highly qualified international expert.

An international expert in port organization and management has been identified and commissioned by the Authority of the Port of Beirut to review and complement the study and issue expert advice for the management of the Port before the previously recommended steps are implemented.

The year 2003 is the year that saw several of the 18 procedures simplified earlier implemented by the corresponding institutions together with OMSAR’s assistance:

Based on the recommendations of the simplification team and the ensuing joint report, the Ministry of Health equipped a center at their premises designated for processing Health Professions Licensing. This one stop shop will allow all Healthcare professionals to apply and obtain licenses to practice their respective professions with great ease and comfort. Moreover the relative application form can be downloaded from OMSAR website thus saving the applicant a trip to the Ministry. For the purpose of automating the process of the newly created licensing center, OMSAR contracted a company to develop an information system that allows the processing of the licenses quickly and efficiently.

In addition, and based on the recommendations to simplify two more procedures, several ministerial decisions were issued that helped streamline those procedures. One decision allowed the import of FDA approved pharmaceuticals into Lebanon without submitting to laboratory testing. Another decision allowed the application for Disabled Orphans Compensation to be submitted directly to the concerned committee specially created for this purpose.

Similar to the implementation program carried out at the Ministry of Public Health, recommendations issued in the simplification report for the Ministry of Finance involved streamlining the inheritance tax declaration. Implementation began in the second quarter of 2003 with the automation of the Inheritance Tax Service which is under the Directorate General of Revenue. In addition, later on this year the newly modified inheritance tax declaration form, which was developed by the simplification team, was adopted. The new tax form has been sent to volume printing to be made available to the public this December. The automation of the Inheritance Tax Unit includes equipment and software to carry out procedures electronically in addition to creating a data base for the vital information and documents provided by the concerned citizen.