الرئيس محمد شقير يتحدث خلال اللقاء الاقتصادي اللبناني الايطالي الذي نظمته السفارة الايطالية في لبنان في فندق الريفييرا للاعلان عن المعرض الدولي لمشاريع الهندسة والبناء والديكور الي سينظم في ميلانو بين 17 و 20 تشرين الاول 2012 وهنا نص كلمة الرئيس شقير:

Speech of Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture of Beirut & Mount Lebanon Mr. Mohamed Choucair during the presentation MADE expo , The International Event for Projects, Architecture & Buildings that will be held in Milano during the period 17-20 October 2012.

Excellency Giuseppe Morabito, Ambassador of Italy Ladies and Gentlemen,

In Lebanon, promoting and marketing Italian products are not prerequisites. You don’t need to convince the Lebanese public about the quality of Italian goods.

The appreciation by Lebanese people of luxury and refined taste is well known around the world, and therefore the affinity towards anything coming from Italy. We do love Italian life style which is very close to our own lifestyle.

And since the foundation of a flourishing Lebanese-Italian trade relationship is deeply rooted in both countries, we need to concentrate our efforts to attract more Italian companies to establish presence in Lebanon and take advantage of the Lebanese skilled labor.

Also Italian companies and Italian businessmen can benefit from the Lebanese relaxed laws for investors and the free flow of capitals in order to invest in Lebanese projects or to use Lebanese private sector knowledge of the region and jointly explore other markets in the region.

MADEexpo exhibition is a great opportunity for Italian companies and their Lebanese counterparts to get first hand information about new products and to assess market needs.

You may well know that Lebanon’s real estate industry is booming and Lebanese engineers are spread throughout the region and Lebanese construction companies are winning big projects because of their competitiveness and knowledge of the regional market. So, the elements of a productive relationship are there. We hope throughout this exhibition and mainly in the B2B meetings, the Italian and Lebanese creativity, would produce joint ventures and work out partnerships that would add to the already excellent relationship between our two nations.

We wish you a productive exhibition and an enjoyable stay in Lebanon. And we at the Beirut and Mount Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture pledge our support to your efforts and we stand ready to assist and organize initiatives that you see beneficial and needed to achieve our common objective.