The World Bank’s Board of Directors has approved a $5.31 million loan to the Republic of Lebanon to complete the improvement of their Land Survey and Registration system.
The supplemental loan will be used to finance the completion of the computerized land rights database and the reconstruction, archiving, and computerization of destroyed, ruined and newly created maps.
The loan, part of the Revenue Enhancement and Fiscal Management Technical Assistance project, will be carried out over two years from October 2003 to December 2005 by the Directorate of Land Registration. The funding has a 15 year maturity with a five-year grace period.
Lebanon suffered through a long and devastating civil war lasting from 1975 to 1990. During that period, a lot of the infrastructure and government institutions were destroyed and the land registration system was disrupted. Many maps, titles and land records were either destroyed or are in extreme state of physical deterioration.
The program to survey the entire Lebanese territory was also interrupted. By the end of the Civil War, the Directorate of Land Registration lost personnel and facilities and was unable to keep the land registration reports up to date and to record and archive real estate transactions and ownership records. Their information system was old and outmoded and its equipment was technically outdated.
This situation had an adverse impact on private sector land-related investment for housing and other purposes. Reconstruction of the land registration system was identified as vital to ensure the full recovery of Lebanon.
The original World Bank’s Revenue Enhancement and Fiscal Management Project was designed to rehabilitate and modernize the land registration system. It was meant to reconstruct, archive and computerize the destroyed or ruined land maps, produce new maps, train the personnel to improve their skills and establish a computerized and user-friendly land rights and graphical information database.
While the project was ongoing, additional quantities of title registers and mapped parcels not anticipated by the original project appraisal were discovered. Therefore, in order to successfully complete the project, additional funds were needed.
The Bank and the Lebanese authorities have jointly concluded that a supplemental loan is the best, most effective and timely way to finance the additional costs necessary to complete improvement of the Land Survey and Registration System. The funds will cover additional mapping, surveying and titling work as well as finance two small consultancies that will address specific issues associated with prompt completion of the system.
By supporting this project, the Bank will contribute to speeding up the reconstruction of Lebanon’s market economy. The project’s emphasis is on the rehabilitation of land registration and titling system, and strengthening of the central institutions.
The overall country assistance strategy for Lebanon specifically identified the need for helping to increase Government revenues, revitalize and expand essential infrastructure, strengthen weak public sector institutions, restore confidence in public institutions and enable Private Sector Development by strengthening property rights and the real estate market. — (menareport.com)
© 2003 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
