International donors have pledged billions of dollars in aid and development loans for Lebanon at the CEDRE conference held in Paris on Friday as they hoped to lay a groundwork to ensure money is well spent. Some 40 countries have sent representatives to the conference along with officials from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian kicked off the conference by announcing that France would provide 550 million euros ($675 million), saying the contribution reflected "the level of our ambitions in Lebanon". "In a Middle East shaken by crises, wounded by civil wars, Lebanon remains the model of pluralism, tolerance and openness which we need," he said. "But Lebanon is not an island. Its borne the full force of regional tensions and the Syria crisis. It combats terrorism on its borders and in its own country, and with more than a million refugees, it has taken more than its share of the Syrian exodus," he said. Other than France, several countries such as Italy, Germany and the US, and the European Union made pledges worth in total billions of dollars to help Lebanon. Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri laid out his countrys grim situation, which the Syrian war has accentuated. Fears of economic collapse in Lebanon are mounting ahead of next months parliamentary elections, the first in nine years. "It is not the stability of Lebanon alone. This is the stability of the region and, therefore, of our world," Hariri said in his opening speech. “We are a little country facing enormous political, economic and security challenges and these challenges are exacerbated by the war in Syria and the crisis of displaced Syrians in Lebanon," Hariri said, calling for substantial financial support from the international community. "Lebanons recovery must start ... the challenge today is to reverse the (negative) trend in terms of growth, poverty and unemployment and the government must play the main role." Friday’s meeting is not a classic donors conference but is meant to seek an investment plan around infrastructure, water and energy, delineate structural reforms, and mobilize the private sector. Its to adopt a follow-up mechanism to accompany investment. Lebanon has one of the highest levels of state debt in the world. The parliament last week adopted a 2018 government budget, projecting a deficit of $4.8 billion -- more than double the deficit in 2011, when Syrias war started. Economists say the state urgently needs to reduce its spending to avert a crisis. But public services such as water supplies, electricity and waste management have suffered huge underinvestment.