PARIS – Fifty-one states and regional and international organizations were invited to CEDRE to express and offer support for Lebanon’s economy and infrastructure. The title “CEDRE” itself – a French acronym translated as “Conference for Development and Reform with Businesses” – demonstrates the desire to differentiate this conference from its predecessors, as it breaks away from the “Paris I” nomenclature. The pledges included $4 billion in World Bank loans, 1.1 billion euros ($1.35 billion) in loans from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the renewal of a previously pledged $1 billion credit line from Saudi Arabia, Lebanese officials said.

France was the first country to make a bid with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announcing that Europe’s second largest economy would provide 400 million euros ($489.3 million) in loans below market rates and would donate another 150 million euros ($183.5 million). Saudi Arabia, will grant the country a $1-billion (800 million-euro) development loan, a Lebanese government official told a donor conference in Paris Friday. Donors in turn want to see Lebanon commit to long-stalled reforms. In a nod to those demands, Hariri pledged fiscal consolidation to reduce the budget deficit – more than 150 percent of gross domestic product at the end of 2017 – by 5 percent during the next five years. S