During the 18^th MedLogistics week in SIL 2022 in Barcelona, Spain, YEP MED interviewed Mr Walid Lattouf, the president of the Lebanese Forwarders Syndicate

As president of the Lebanese forwarders syndicate, what are in your opinion the main concerns of the freight forwarding sector in Lebanon?

The main concerns of the freight forwarding sector are now to overcome  daily operational problems, namely, power generation. Luckily, some are fortunate to shift to solar energy, but others have to depend on producing it from private generators which is a costly affair. Another serious problem is keeping its employees since they are receiving offers from big international companies local and abroad which are offering better salaries . This is not to mention the daily hassle of finding space on the vessels which are still overbooked. And finally try to solve the problems related to the strike or absence of public sector employees which is making it hard to fulfil the logistics chain for our clients.

How do you usually  recruit your staff? Through which channel? And are the needed skilled available on the market?

I recruit every few months, depending on the vacancies in the company. Usually,I try on  site: hire Lebanese, but then I get a lot of irrelevant CVs, which become annoying because there are a lot to read and I don’t have time to make too many interviews. Luckily, I started to arrange meeting using zoom application.

What do you think of the international digital trainings in port logistics in the context of  YEP MED project? How can it help the sector?

If it offers digital training for local employees, then certainly it will be a great idea. It would give a very valuable experience to our candidates. However, the trainers should be well aware of the Lebanese market, and not just give theories about the international logistics which might be irrelevant to our Lebanese situation.