Lebanese Ministry of Information
Minister of Industry, Dr. Imad Hoballah, and Minister of Information, Dr. Manal Abdel Samad Najd, on Monday inaugurated a media gathering at the Industrial Research Institute, titled “Media production is a need for industrial production”.
The MoC signature event, which aims to activate cooperation between the industrial and media sectors, took place in the presence of the Director General of the Ministry of Industry, Danny Gideon, the Director General of the Ministry of Information, Dr. Hassan Falha, and other senior officials and dignitaries.
Minister Abdel Samad gave an address in which she affirmed that her participation in the aforementioned event was an attempt to stress the importance of cooperation between the media and industry sectors.
“Today, the industry sector meets with the media sector to launch their cooperation; this cooperation is between one of the pillars of national production, the industry, and the public and private media. We emphasize the substantial role of the media to market an industrial plan which encourages investments, whether at home or abroad,” Abdel Samad said.
She went on to capitalize on the need to encourage citizens to purchase Lebanese products, adding that this should resonate better with citizens when the media succeeds in shedding light on the importance of the Lebanese industry and industrial products.
“We aim to encourage the Lebanese industry to move the economic wheel through this initiative,” the Minister said.
She pointed out that meetings would be held between the two sectors, and that there would be cooperation projects to encourage the agricultural, health, environmental and commercial media. “This is necessary to shed light on the pillars of the Lebanese economy and production.”
Abdel Samad also expressed hope that the much-needed solutions would be swiftly discovered, away from political intervention, “so that we can revamp our economy and resolve all the outstanding issues in Lebanon.”
For his part, Minister Hoballah gave a speech in which he made clear that today’s gathering between the media and industrial sectors aimed at mobilizing the joint media-industrial energies and for crafting new and creative industrial programs.
“Despite the fact that corruption and the rentier economy have been deeply rooted in our system, many have become fully convinced that the local industry plays a pivotal role in achieving growth,” Hoballah said.
He explained that local industries directly supported the national economy, not to mention safeguarded food and social security. “The importance of industry is that it is the basis for a transition from a rentier economy to a productive one, a thing which has prompted us to develop integrated economic plans and to set forward-looking goals on such basis,” maintained Hoballah.
“We have worked, in our capacity as the Ministry of Industry, with stakeholders to develop an integrated vision for the industrial advancement with short, medium, and long-term implementation programs aimed at raising the level of investor confidence — this is what we have presented to the Lebanese, Arab, and international investors,” the Minister of Industry added.
Hoballah finally listed a number of proposals to move forward with the national industry and the MoC with the Minister of Information. “We have reached an agreement on a memorandum of cooperation between the Ministries of Industry and Information, which forms a solid base for the contribution of private and public media in developing local industries, and in calling for investments in this sector.”
NNA
