On the second day of BDL Accelerate 2014, the halls were buzzing and the audience was cheering. During the panel, Lebanon’s Ecosystem, the controversial topic of the current slow Internet connection in Lebanon popped up and the discussion got heated. It was apparent that members of the panel and the audience were all frustrated by the snail-paced Internet connection available in the country.
As Mike Butcher points out in this article, “The current average Internet speed in Lebanon is 3.11 Mbps, far lower than the Gulf countries such as the United Arab Emirates, which enjoys an average 27.9 Mbps.” He also adds that simply doubling the bandwidth would improve Lebanon’s GDP by 0.6 percent. Then why has this not been done? Politics. Due to political reasons and gains, OGERO has been obstructing the development of Lebanon’s Internet Economy. All policies similar to this one hinder the development of the country’s economy, including the startup ecosystem.
In his article, Butcher goes on to highlight many of the positive aspects of the Lebanese Startup Ecosystem that he witnessed during BDL Accelerate 2014 including new support initiatives, the promising investment scene, clusters, Human talent, successful entrepreneurs, upcoming startups, and accelerators and startup events.
Butcher concluded that Lebanon’s startup ecosystem has potential to develop and that hopefully the country’s politicians will realize the requirement of decent internet access.
