We would like to remind you that the due date for submitting your full application to the MIT Arab Business Plan Competition is Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 23:59 GMT.

For technical difficulties, please feel free to reply to this e-mail info@mitarabcompetition.com, and we will take care of your request.

www.mitarabcompetition.com


A year of rebirth of Lebanon’s Haute Couture. Lebanon’s fashion designers are thriving, as the country profits from a year of political stability. Natalie Antelava reports from Beyrouth on Lebanon’s bid to become the capital of the Middle East fashion world.

Also, please preview a report on Lebanese fashion designers in the spotlight on France24


Elie Khoury of Woopra, Habib Haddad of Yamli & Sami Shalabi ventured on creating Yalla Startup! in order to help Lebanese and the entrepreneurs of the MENA region to launch their start ups and actually transforming their ideas to reality, taking their early stage startups to the next level by introducing them to the right channels and programs.

The Middle East and North Africa, according to google, is the fastest expanding online users, leaving a lot of room for innovation, and online services. This blog has encouraged such entrepreneurship spirit during the Termium expo and the Internet progess in Lebanon.

As of today, Yalla Startup! will be launching an entrepreneurship course, and giving away 6 free tickets. I highly encourage you to sign up, and hopefully will motivate you and guide you to launching online services or whatever the internet constantly manages to change in our daily lives.

This relates to our previous post concerning the IT sector in Lebanon today, I strongly encourage you to have a look on the progress of the internet and software development in Lebanon.




On behalf of the authors, we would like to wish the circle a merry Christmas and may this festive season bring abundant joy and happiness in your life.

I invite you to share your Christmas stories at Exotica’s My Different Christmas.


courtesy of BeirutNightLife.


DOW JONES Newswire - Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services raised Lebanon’s sovereign-credit ratings and gave them a positive outlook because of banking resilience and the expectation of political stability in the medium term.

Lebanon benefits from a large and stable depositor base, as well as financial support from wealthy Arab states and Lebanese expatriates, but the country has a large public debt which hinders its fiscal flexibility. Last month, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri formed a national unity government.

Over three years of political flux, Lebanon’s public finances and especially its banking system remained resilient, according to S&P. In addition, the new party consensus improves the likelihood of achieving reforms recommended by the International Monetary Fund and the Paris III conference on rebuilding the country. These reforms could lower fiscal deficits, cut government debt-to- gross-domestic-product levels and reduce Lebanon’s liabilities.

The agency Tuesday said it expects, conservatively, that the central government fiscal deficit could fall to 6.3% of GDP in 2012 from 9.9% in 2008.

S&P raised its long- and short-term sovereign-credit ratings on the Republic of Lebanon one notch to B. Further ratings action will depend on how much success the new government has in increasing fiscal stability. The rating would face downward pressure should civil unrest break out or the government falters in its pursuit of the Paris III reforms.