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BEIRUT, Watanieh ---- The General Union of Chambers of Trade, Industry, and Agriculture for Arab Countries (GUCCIAAC) honored Chairman of Talal Abu-Ghazaleh Intellectual Property, Dr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, at the opening of the “Social Responsibility of the Arab Chambers, Banks, and Companies" Forum which was held at GUCCIAAC's Headquarter under the patronage of Minister of Industry, Dr. Hussein Al-Haj Hassan, and in collaboration with Lebanese Standards Institution- LIBNOR.

The opening was attended by Minister of Industry Mr. Al-Haj Hassan, the Former Ministers: Mr. Freij Sabouni, and Mr. Khaled Kabbani, the Honorary President of GUCCIAAC, Mr. Adnan Kassar, Mr. Ibrahim Shams-Eddin, Director of the National News Agency, Ms. Laure Sleiman Saab, President of National Dialogue Party, Mr. Fouad Makhzoumi, Member of the Christian- Muslim Committee for Dialogue, Mr. Mohammad Al-Sammak, and more than 150 official and economic Arab and Lebanese personalities.

At the outset of the event, the National Anthem was performed followed by the speech of the Honorary President of GUCCIAAC and the former Minister, Mr. Adnan Kassar in which he said, "Today, in light of unprecedented events this region is experiencing, we, as Arab private sector, need to be prepared to undertake social responsibility and advance the economy towards serving humans and properly developing humanity".

He added," Since I started my career, I feel responsible for the community which helps us achieve our professional objectives, and I have always been keen on consolidating the culture of social responsibility whether in my private business or in the institutions that I have headed. We, at Fransabank Group, were one of the first Lebanese institutions to introduce the concept of social responsibility".

He also stated, "Being the President of the International Chamber of Commerce during the period from 1999 to 2000, I had the opportunity to convince the international business community to adopt the (Global Compact) which was signed by the General Secretary of the United Nations at that time Mr. Kofi Annan, and myself. The Global Compact urges the private sector and business institutions to develop their strategies in harmony with fundamental principles regarding human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption".

Vice President of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists, Mr. George Nassrawi stated," Lebanon is experiencing a national socioeconomic crisis where everything around us is collapsing; human is collapsing, our economy is bleeding, stability is threatened, social justice and human dignity are in regression. For this reason, we need to work to reduce the suffering of Lebanese citizens and to make a safety net that protect the social stability which in turn helps the economic grow and the society unite."

He added, "The Association of Lebanese Industrialists gives great importance to social responsibility, we understand that the reasons for great crises, social crises in specific, are that the capital becomes a monster and the economy is built by using humans and not by serving humans.”

The Chairman of Lebanese Standards Institution- LIBNOR, Mr. Habib Ghaziri also gave a spe