MICRO AND SMALL ENTERPRISES IN LEBANON

person enterprises is an evidence of the entrepreneurial spirit that prevails over the Lebanese informaleconomy. It might also be an indication of the prevalence of this sector within poor disadvantagedcategories of the population, with limited enabling factors for such enterprises to grow beyond the“one-person” category.The sectoral distribution of surveyed enterprises delineates the dominance of trade as the majoreconomic activity of MSEs (72.6% of sample), only to be followed by “other” 11 economic activities(12.9%), and to a lesser extent industry (8.8%). Enterprises in the category that encompasses hotelsand restaurants do not constitute more than 5.1% of surveyed enterprises, and construction 12 does notinclude more than 0.6% of surveyed MSEs.Figure 1 also illustrates that the highest concentration of trade-related activities are observed inenterprises with only one worker (81%). This percentage decreases to 37% of enterprises employing10-49 individuals. The reverse is true in terms of the industrial sector which accounts for a higherpercentage of larger enterprises as opposed to smaller enterprises (industry accounts for 28.4% and5.1% of enterprises employing 10-49 individuals and one person enterprises, respectively). The sameobservation is noticed in the hotel and restaurants sector.Figure 1: Distribution of MSEs According to Size and Sector of Activity100.0%80.0%10.8%2.6%14.8% 14.5%6.2% 8.5%11.1% 12.9%21.0%5.1%60.0%40.0%81.0% 68.6%55.8% 37.0%72.6%2.5%20.0%0.0%1.2%28.4%0.6%20.0%0.6%0.5%5.1%9.8%8.8%1 2-4 5-9 10-49 TotalIndustry construction trade hotels & restaurants other sectorsFemale-run enterprises account for around 8% of surveyed MSEs, with noted variation between thedifferent sectors of activity. Female-run enterprises do not account for more than 3.9% and 4.6% ofsurveyed enterprises in the industry and hotels & restaurants sectors, respectively. Conversely, theseconstitute around 8% of enterprises in the trade sector and are highest for "other" sectoral activities(10.3%).III.2 Age of enterprisesMost of the surveyed enterprises are less than ten years old and were established after the year 1995(58%), and 35% of enterprises were established after the year 2000, while only 14% of surveyedenterprises were established before 1979. Furthermore, the fact that MSEs have been established formore than ten years may suggest that they are stable in the market and well established as per theirshare of market and customers. What is most significant, perhaps, is that 71% of surveyed enterprises11The category "other" includes the following occupations: transportation, telecommunications, monetary intermediationand financial leasing, life and non life insurance, real estate activities, photographic activities, and other entertainmentactivities.12The category "construction" in the sample included only general contractor's office, engineers, self employedprofessionals. Enterprises with 50 or more workers were excluded from the survey. The three categories listed account forthe majority of construction labor and enterprises, explaining the low significance of construction in this sample. As a result,analysis for construction will be systematically excluded from the text while it will be kept in the tables and figures forreference.16