EC
President Romano Prodi was welcomed in Beirut city center by
SOLIDERE chairman-general manager Nasser Chammaa. Mr Prodi, who
visited Beirut for the first time in 1958, was impressed with the
reconstruction of the city center.
Mr. Chammaa also welcomed
Prince Laurent of Belgium, heading a delegation of Belgian officials
and personalities interested in environmental and conservation
issues. The price expressed admiration for SOLIDER's efforts in
heritage conservation, sea protection and environmental cleanup.
Francis Griffin,
vice-president of the Chamber of Economic Development in Monaco, was
received with a delegation.
Princess Catherine
Sadruddin Aga Khan visited the city center, where she toured the
Hadiqat As-Samah site and St George Greek-Orthodox cathedral.
Official visitors included
Bulgaria president Peter Stoianov; Prince Hassan Bin Talal of
Jordan; Mrs Sophie Nathun, spouse of the Gabon prime minister;
Egyptian minister of electricity Ali Saidi; former UAE minister
Abdullah Amran; and Qatar Amiri diwan chief Abdullah Al Thani.
Among business visitors
were Saudi investor Alal El Faasi and Jassine Manai, head of the
Arab Commerce Fund, heading a delegation of 30 exporters and
importers of building materials.
Representatives of the
following companies and institutions also came: UAE Trade Financing
program; The World Construction and Bin Khaled groups (Abu Dhabi);
Abdullatif & Mohammed Al Fozan Co (Saudi Arabia); EQUATE
(Kuwait); Steelcase (Dubai); Belgian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry; the Netherlands Center for the Promotion of Imports from
Developing Countries; OSRAM (Germany); Bang & Olufsen
International; ABN-AMRO; Lausanne Hospitality Consulting; Hill-Rom
(US); MasterCard International; Bouygues and Crédit Agricole des
Caisses Nationales (France); Petro-Force (Syria); Optimum Holding
group and OBEGI chemicals (Lebanon).
From the professional and
academic world came 15 American Bar Association members; 15 Harvard
University town planning students, 15 architects from Stuttgart
University; 13 students from Norwegian universities; and a
representative of International College in the US.
The media was represented
by teams from Tricompictures TV production (US), Argentinian Radio
and TV, Dubai TV, Herald Tribune TV and Belgian TV; as well as
journalists from Australia, Canada, Germany and the US.
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