NNA – Caretaker Minister of Tourism, Eng. Walid Nassar, on Friday announced the numbers of the winning projects for the best three architectural designs for the Lebanese Cinema City, at a conference held this afternoon at the Leila Solh Hamadeh Hall - the Ministry of Tourism building, with the participation of Caretaker Minister of Information Ziad Makary and the Ambassador of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Dr. Alaa Moussa, as well as members of the jury and participating students.
Following the Lebanese national anthem, Caretaker Minister Nassar delivered a speech in which he welcomed the participants, jury committee members, and representatives of the participating universities and students. Nasssar congratulated the participating students, and stressed “the importance of partnership between the public and private sectors.”
‘’This work illustrates the beautiful face of Lebanon and the strong will that overcomes all difficulties. When we agree on a project without any discrimination between one person and another, we certainly achieve success,” the Minister said.
Addressing the young women and men, Minister Nassar said: “Your country is very beautiful and we must preserve it, as you are the future of the country.” He said: “Regarding the subject of our project, “Cinema City,” we decided to launch it a year ago. We secured the property and agreed to hold a competition for the initial design of the Cinema City project. Today we invited all the universities in Lebanon specializing in architecture, as eight universities participated, submitting 16 projects.Today, since 10.00 am, the independent arbitration committee has convened pending the issuance of these results. In order for the proposed project to materialize, legislative action is required through drafting a bill in Parliament. This legislation aims to establish a public investment institution tasked with spearheading the development of the tourism and cinematic economy.”
He pointed out that 6 projects were selected out of 16 projects, adding “Projects 4, 5, and 6 reaped our encouragement and continuity, and the first project will be approved, just as the other projects have chances other times. All of this was done in a very transparent methodology in order to obtain the desired result.”
In his word, Minister Makary stressed the importance of invigorating the cultural industries, saying: “Cultural industries, that is, everything related to printing, culture, art and creativity, and these are matters that must be revitalized and encouraged, especially the cinema sector, which has a bright history in Lebanon.”
Minister Makary also underlined "the importance of partnership between the public and private sectors given its benefit to the state and its sons."
Makary congratulated the winners and wished this project all success.
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