Lebanon receives generous multimillion dollar donation from China

Lebanon has just announced an exciting development: a generous multimillion-dollar donation from China to help install solar energy for the struggling internet provider in the country. The Ministry of Telecommunications shared this fantastic news on Tuesday.

In an effort to tackle the persistent electricity shortages that have been affecting the country’s internet and phone services, Ogero, the state-owned telecommunications service, is set to receive over $8 million for the installation of solar energy panels at more than 830 sites.

According to a statement from the ministry, the telecommunications sector, including the Ministry and Ogero, has been grappling with significant challenges amid the country’s financial and economic crisis. Issues such as the weakening national currency and frequent power outages have made it difficult to effectively tackle these obstacles.

“After diligent work, the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Ogero Authority obtained a Chinese donation worth more than 8 million US dollars to supply more than 380 sites for the Authority with clean solar energy.”

The solar energy project is expected to be operating by summer 2024 while a campaign will be launched in the upcoming days to collect donations in order to secure necessary credits from the central bank, the statement said. 

But with its output tied to the collapsed national grid Électricité du Liban (EDL) – itself unable to produce more than three or four hours of power daily – there have been major outages for landline, mobile and internet users since the onset of the crisis in 2019. 

Last year, Ogero’s director said the company had been forced to run services using backup generators as a result of EDL’s poor power supply. 

Government administrations, hospitals, military facilities and universities have all faced severe connection problems. 

Just this week, residents of villages in southern Lebanon complained of a two-day internet blackout which disrupted businesses and communication. 

In addition, intermittent employee strikes at Ogero have caused further disruption with workers demanding wage increases and transportation support in light of the drastic devaluation of the Lebanese pound. 

Earlier this month, Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Jonny Corms told Lebanese daily L’Orient-Le Jour he had requested that a portion of the Iraqi diesel fuel, imported as part of a barter deal with Baghdad to supply EDL, be allocated for Ogero’s services. 

The move towards solar energy for Lebanon would be one of the first government green energy actions to address the failing electricity sector, which has seen a growing number of homes, hospitals and businesses forced to install solar photovoltaic panels to access a sufficient power supply. 

However, the donation will likely spark concern among certain parties regarding Chinese involvement in the country’s communications sector. 

The United States, for example, has sought to crackdown over the apparent influence of the Chinese government in its telecoms firms and has previously criticised calls in Lebanon for more Chinese involvement in the country’s infrastructure projects.

In 2021, the Federal Comuncation’s Commmission banned a handful of Chinese telecom companies, including the multinational Huawei Technologies, citing the “unacceptable risk” to US national security. 

While China is not traditionally regarded as one of Lebanon’s close partners, both parties are keen to step up exchanges and last year signed an agreement to allow visa exemptions for certain citizens. 

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Lebanon was one of the earliest countries to receive China’s Sinopharm vaccine in a donation from the Chinese embassy.