NNA – Houmal Technology Park (HTP) President, Fadi Daou, organized a workshop entitled “Yesterday's Silk, Today's High Tech (Technology)”, at Our Lady’s Church Hall in Houmal with the participation of Caretaker Minister of Industry, MP George Boushkian, Deputy Ceasar Abi Khalil and a number of interested figures.
Daou spoke about “Multilane”, which he founded in 2006, and which exports technological products to various countries of the world, announcing his support for Lebanese talents and commending the participation of Minister Boushkian and MP Abi Khalil and all interested figures attending the workshop, "which reflects the importance of technology in our present time."
"Just as our ancestors succeeded in manufacturing silk and exporting it to Europe, today we affirm that we carry the torch of the new industry and declare our determination to succeed and excel in it," Daou asserted.
For his part, Minister Boushkian praised the “beauty of Lebanon when its people live in a unique interaction and religious partnership in a small homeland, mixed with culture and civilization, spread across the earth.”
He added: “I congratulate Mr. Fadi Daou for his initiative to establish a Technology Park in Houmal, not far from the Silk Museum in Bsous, which was established by Mr. Georges Asseily and his wife. We conclude that this region revolves around silk and technology. I believe that organizing a tour of the museum would not have conflicted with the topic of our seminar today. The title of yesterday's silk and today's technology should not be understood as two concepts that contradict each other, but rather that complement each other...Here is the Chinese giant related to the revival of the Silk Road, with its symbolism, benefits, and commercial and reciprocal importance. The competition between major countries is based on the acquisition of technological secrets.”
Boushkian continued to note that the largest global companies in terms of size and capital in billions of dollars are computer software and technology companies that can enrich their owners overnight and put them at the top of the list of the richest in the world.
“We, in Lebanon, have moved from a primitive and traditional agro-industrial stage that constituted a paramount need at the time, and I mean silkworm breeding and the silk industry, to an advanced industrial stage that aims to enter modern and technological industries that are competitive in the most demanding markets,” he went on. “In a glimpse of the Fifth Industrial Revolution, it is witnessing a tug of war between technological and digital development, robotics, artificial intelligence, electronic and informatics applications, software and satellites, and between restoring the human mind, human experience and human hands’ role in achieving growth, protecting the environment and reducing pollution rates,” Boushkian added.
He highlighted the necessity of interaction between the classical and modern industries in the framework of building an integrated economy for the future
In turn, MP Abi Khalil referred in his word to the “importance of this workshop in terms of its timing and approach to the technological industry, which is considered the modern era of new industries in which educated youth excel and innovate in Lebanon and abroad."
He continued to define the concept of the “Special Economic Zone”, and the tax and customs incentives and exemptions that investors and initiative owners obtain, saying: "The owner of a geographical area that he intends to convert into a special economic zone, is given a license on this basis, provided that it is allocated for the establishment of transformational, integrative and technological industries. With the decline in demand for real estate, real estate developers and contractors must move towards projects that embrace Hi-Tech industries."
He also noted that Lebanon exported more technological industries than Israel in the years 1974, 1975 and 1976. He added: “The national currency had great purchasing power against the US dollar. However, the ‘silk’ policy built a rentier economy, trade and services. At the expense of production in the beginning of 1992, it wiped out growth, competitiveness and productivity.”
Abi Khalil concluded by hoping that “Lebanon would regain its role and position on the Arab and international arena, because the industry has distinguished, innovative Lebanese minds that are capable of growth and development."
==========R.Sh.
