Photo: Greg Demarque

Project Lebanon 2009, the main networking event for all construction professional in the region attracts this year more than 350 companies from 23 countries. All the major players in the construction business will be meeting in Lebanon from June 16 to June 19. 

The event held under the patronage of H.E. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, is taking place at BIEL - Beirut International Exhibition & Leisure Center, across some 16,000 square meters of exposition space. It is a joint effort of IFP- Group and the Order of Engineers & Architects – Beirut in collaboration with several leading environmental nongovernmental organizations and research centers.
During a press conference, Albert Aoun, President of IFP - Group announced that this year, a “Sustainability Week” will take place on the sidelines of Project Lebanon. It is organized Order of Engineers and Architects in Beirut (OEA) in partnership with the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation (LCEC) and in collaboration with the Ashrae Lebanon Chapter, the Lebanese Solar Energy Society (LSES), the Green Building Council of Lebanon (GBCL), and the Agence Libanaise pour la Maitrise de l’Energie (ALME). 

Project Lebanon 2009 enjoys keen interest among construction markets specialists, professional architects and designers, but also among the business community in general and the mass media, attracting upward of 15,000 visitors each year and making it a prime networking environment.
Aoun explained that the exhibition is as a catalyst for billions of dollars in business deals relating to the region’s attention-grabbing construction projects and reconstruction initiatives. He also emphasized that 23 countries are participating at Project Lebanon 2009. Cyprus, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Turkey, and Lebanon, will show National Pavilions. Participants will also include companies from Australia, Belgium, China, India, Greece, Kuwait, Netherlands, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

"The largest presence that Italy has ever had at this Exhibition"

On his part, Sebestiano Del Monte, Italian Trade Commissioner stressed the importance of the Italian Official participation at Project Lebanon 2009 through a National Pavilion where 25 specialized companies will exhibit their products on an area of around 500 sq.m “it is not only the biggest foreign participation at the exhibition, but it is the largest presence that Italy has ever had at this Exhibition, showing the great interest of the Italian system of Small and Medium sized companies toward Lebanon in this particular period of economic rehabilitation of the Country”. Del Monte added. 

The Italian Pavilion includes machines, equipments, materials and services related to building and construction industries. Of this area, 120 sq.m will be dedicated to a standalone exhibition denominated “Italian Marble Show” project, designed by the world famous Italian architectural office “Studio Marco Piva”. It consists of a series of “pieces of art” realized by various Italian companies renowned for their skills to unravel the beauty of marble and other natural stones by using innovative technologies. Held for the first time in the Middle East, the “Italian Marble Show” will offer the chance of admiring the various Italian techniques of marble uses and processing.