📌Is a “Golden Residency” Enough to Attract Investors to Lebanon? 📌The proposal to grant foreign investors residency in exchange for a USD 500,000 investment raises a fundamental question: what exactly is an investor buying in Lebanon today? 📌Investment is built on trust, not on residency permits alone. Yet Lebanon continues to face profound structural challenges. The country suffers from chronic electricity shortages, poor water supply, slow internet services, and an unresolved waste management crisis. More than five million square metres of the coastline remain illegally occupied, reflecting weak governance and poor enforcement of the law. 📌Economically, inflation remains around 20%, while the economy is unable to create sufficient jobs, prompting tens of thousands of skilled and educated young Lebanese to emigrate every year. 📌The financial sector presents an even more troubling picture. Lebanese banks have effectively become “zombie banks”, with restructuring yet to begin. Confidence in the banking system has collapsed, and foreign and non-resident depositors remain unable to access an estimated USD 20 billion of trapped deposits. 📌Lebanon also remains on the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list, while the cash economy is estimated at around 50% of GDP, among the highest levels in the world. The country is also ranked among the world’s thirty most corrupt nations. 📌Meanwhile, the outlook for reforms remains uncertain, as powerful vested interests continue to obstruct the implementation of measures required under an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. 📌Concerns over investment protection are no longer theoretical. Emirati investor Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor has initiated international arbitration against the Lebanese state, alleging that his investments suffered losses and were not adequately protected by Lebanese laws. 📌Against this backdrop, a legitimate question arises: can a “golden residency” programme attract genuine long-term investors, or will it primarily appeal to a limited category of wealthy individuals seeking jurisdictions with lighter regulation and taxation? 📌Ultimately, investors do not simply buy residency. They buy confidence in a country’s institutions, economy, and future. Without deep structural reforms, it is difficult to see how a residency-by-investment programme can achieve its intended objectives.