Beirut Arab University, Tripoli Branch, and Hommes d’Affaires Libanaise de France (HALFA) organized an economic conference entitled: “Empowering Lebanon: The Immigrant Workforce and Economic Revival – Tripoli, Yes We Can (third edition)” in cooperation with the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Tripoli and North Lebanon and the Lebanese Executive Council in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Union of Arab Banks, Faculty of Business Administration at the Higher Institute of Business, Australian New Zealand Lebanon Chamber of Commerce in Melbourne, and the Union of Arab Chambers.
The conference, which was held under the patronage of Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, represented by the Minister of Education and Higher Education H.E Dr. Rima Karami, and the Ministers of Defense H.E Mr. Michel Mnassah, Minister of Industry H.E Mr. Joe Issa Al Khoury, Administrative Development H.E Mr. Fadi Makki, Minister of Tourism H.E Mrs. Laura Lahhoud, the Mufti of Tripoli and the North Sheikh Mohammad Imam, and Members of Parliament Ashraf Rifi and Ihab Matar, and a crowd of former ministers and members of parliaments, more than fifty lecturers and 400 participants from Lebanon and abroad, and activists from Tripoli and the North participated in the conference.
The conference aims to develop frameworks for practical strategies to encourage investment in Lebanon, promote sustainable economic development, expand opportunities for youth and the role of women and unleash Tripoli’s potentials.
The conference that shall discuss in six sessions distributed on two days investment opportunities, outsourcing, workforce development, and explore innovative strategies to rebuild the national economy, women’s contribution to entrepreneurship, especially in Tripoli, the strategic importance of economic sectors in Tripoli, and how to benefit from financial reform and the participation of expatriates in order to revive the Lebanese economy.
The Minister of Education and Higher Education H.E Dr. Rima Karami, who represented the Prime Minister, said during the opening session, “Lebanon is facing fateful moments in the history of our country, in which we oscillate between attempts of advancement and fighting ignorance and corruption, in light of a Zionist enemy that practices and enjoys destruction and killing. All this made the government like a clutch of embers in which will be burnt if it remained holding embers in its hands, and burns his land if he wanted to alleviate the pain. Our embers are those painful unpopular reform decisions, but we desire for the results and needed to be achieved despite the hardships and the need to bear their flames.”
Karami added: “We believed as a government that it is time for us as Lebanese people to leave our doctrines and disintegration, reject the ego, and move hand in hand to serious and fruitful work. Our conference today in this edifice of knowledge under the title “Yes, We Can” is nothing but an effort of people in this country towards advancement and reform as one of the aspects of steadfastness and hope.”
The President of Beirut Arab University Professor Wael Nabil Abdel Salam, pointed out that the conference comes in a serious time in Lebanon’s history. He said that: “the Lebanese migrant labor force, which is spread around the earth, carries within enormous potential to contribute to reviving the national economy and that the remittances of immigrants and their accumulated experience, and their international network, form a strategic asset that should be invested in and directed efficiently to serve the interest of Lebanon”.
The Chairman of the Lebanese Executive Council in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Mr. Rabih Al Amin, the President of the Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture in Tripoli and the North Mr. Toufic Dabboussi, and then the President of the Hommes d’Affaires Libanaise de France Mr. Antoine Mnassah, who stressed the commitment to Lebanon as an effective part of the international community through deployment of immigrants in the Arab and international world, and creating job opportunities for the people of Lebanon abroad or contribute effectively to local development.
The Director of Tripoli branch at Beirut Arab University Professor Hani Al Shaarani, said that the university “not only focuses on university education, but rather seeks to be a pillar of development and a space for developing the north” .
At the end of the opening ceremony, the University President Professor Abdel Salam, presented the University shield of appreciation to H.E Minister Karami, and the guests. The Hommes d’Affaires Libanaise de France Association, in turn, presented a shield of appreciation to the University President, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Bir Wal Ihsan, and the Chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees Dr. Ammar Houry.
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