and that s why so many lebanese people are queuing around the block trying to get their money out of the banks. the banks have now closed, and the only way it seems to get any cash, your own cash, out of a bank in lebanon is to hold it up with a gun. stephen, there is no easy way out of this. we are really.we are really trying to fix a mess that is two or three decades old, based on corruption and mismanagement of our monetary policies, of our economic vision. we had 20 years where this system and past governments really destroyed this economy, really mismanaged all the monies of the people. we had a central bank as well that lent the government for the past 20 years with no restrictions. this is a mess that needs a lot of work.
in a desperate attempt to get their money out, amid rampant inflation and a currency crisis. my guest is lebanon s minister of economy and trade, amin salam. politicians have failed lebanon for decades. will that change before the meltdown is complete? minister amin salam, currently in washington, dc, welcome to hardtalk. thank you. thank you, stephen, glad to be with you. well, we re delighted to have you in our washington studio. let me ask you, minister,
this is a big game changer. lebanon will bejoining the oil and gas club, which means bringing back confidence to the country, bringing back, you know, fast tracking, potentially an imf agreement, potentially. minister, with respect, it doesn t automatically bring confidence back to lebanon. it only brings confidence. no, no, no. ..if the imf and your people believe that your government will behave responsibly with this new source of revenue. we are banking. we are banking, stephen, on the fact that once the imf agreement is there, the imf will hold the lebanese government accountable. the reason we are seeking an imf deal is because we know that we need somebody to be on top of this government to put a work scope and to audit every three months how we re going to spend our monies. this is why we are seeking an imf work plan, not because the imf is only
what does it say about your country that he is still the governor of the central bank? it simply says that something is still wrong, stephen, and i would not hide behind my thumb, as we say in lebanon, because, yes, there is something still wrong in the structure. we are coming to really work on changing that. we worked on passing an anti corruption law very recently. that is why as well we are working on lifting the ban or passing the banking secrecy law, particularly for public service people to be able to open all accounts and do a full forensic audit on the central bank. all right. the president of lebanon has been pushing for. if the governor of the central bank is listening. i dare say he s very interested that such a senior minister is saying that. so that s on the record and that s interesting. quickly, let s move on to another of your key areas of responsibility
because there s so much to be negative about. but let s end with one positive thought. as i understand it, your government with american mediation, has agreed with israel to define a maritime border, which will allow both countries, israel and lebanon, to begin to explore and produce natural gas from those fields in the mediterranean sea. now, that could mean a massive windfall in the future for lebanon, but why would the lebanese people believe that their government is capable of spending that money responsibly and using it to save the economy? well, to start with, yes, stephen, this is this is absolutely excellent news that we received today. it has not been officially announced yet by both governments, but i have received news that we are in the final hours of getting this official announcement out.