Lebanese Republic 
A workshop organized by the Ministry of Economy and Trade with The Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace
Metrology System in Lebanon
A workshop organized by the Ministry of Economy and Trade and The “Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace” (LFPCP)
Beirut, on November 29th, 2017 - the Ministry of Economy and Trade and The Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace (LFPCP) organized a workshop about the metrology system in Lebanon and its laws held on Wednesday, November 29th, 2017 in the conference room at the Ministry of Economy and Trade as part of the program of Building Alliances for Local Advancement, Development and Investment ( BALADI CAP) financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The opening plenary meeting was managed by Lawyer Rabih Kayss and chaired by MP. Yasin Jaber, the president of the Parliamentary Committee in charge of monitoring the implementation of laws. MP Jaber shed the light on the efforts exerted for the success of the program activities. In this occasion, speeches were given by the Director General of Economy and Trade Mrs. Alia Abbas, representing the Minister of Economy and Trade, Raed Khoury, and by the Director of the “Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace”, Dr. Antoine Mesarra, respectively.
Mrs. Abbas assured in her speech the Ministry’s full commitment to implement all the laws, mainly the Consumer Protection and the Metrology laws. Considering the Consumer Protection law, Mrs. Abbas stated that “a new court was established, known as the Dispute Settlement Committee and mediators were appointed in order to settle complaints with amounts less than three million lebanese lira” adding “the need to make some modification to this law so the fines will commensurate with the breaches perpetrated in order to deter the offenders.
As for the metrology system, the Director General emphasized that the Ministry is fully committed to enhance the role of the National Council for Measurement and assure the compliance of traders with this law given the technical, economic and social developments. For this purpose, the Ministry elaborated an effective strategy to enhance both the control process and the Consumer Protection Directorate to control the measures and weights as well as to follow up all complaints submitted to the Ministry; the thing that reflected by an increase of the inspection visit and the number of complaints”.
Furthermore, Mrs. Abbas pointed out that “despite the various obstacles that the Ministry faces such as the low number of inspectors and the lack of necessary measuring instruments; the Ministry succeeded to overcome these challenges by the following:
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Upgrade the Ministry’s organizational structure and establish a metrology department reporting to the Consumer Protection directorate;
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Organize awareness campaigns at the universities and schools, host volunteer university students, send short text messages and make necessary awareness advertisements;
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Cooperate with strategic partners to ensure the necessary instruments;
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Cooperate with the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace (LFPCP) to elaborate practical decrees for the measurement law; and
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Reactivate the National Council for Measurement.
At the end, Mrs. Abbas expressed her gratitude and thanks towards all the concerned bodies that participated in this workshop, namely the Lebanese Standards Institution LIBNOR; the Industrial Research Institute; the National Council for Scientific Research; Association of Lebanese Industrialists; Saint-Joseph University. To conclude, the Director General also conveyed her thanks to his Excellency, MP Yasin Jaber, the Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace (LFPCP), lawyer Rabih Kayss, the Director of BALADI CAP program in addition to “all the participants who honored us with their presence”.
The workshop was composed of two sessions: the first session "Metrology in the Economy” conducted by MP Joseph Maalouf which concentrated on the role and importance of metrology. As for the second session “the Metrology system”, it was conducted by MP. Khaled Zahraman in which discussions focused on issues relevant to the institutions empowered to implement the metrology law in addition to the relevant procedures taken in this regard.
At the end, the workshop was concluded by a set of recommendations submitted to the concerned bodies.
Overview about the “Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace” (LFPCP)
The Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace was founded in 1987. It aims at promoting theoretical and practical works concerning the Lebanese experience both a rich and painful episode. Common suffering can generate a renewed collective memory and a better immunized civil society against internal as well as external dangers. The Foundation has propagated concepts that had already been integrated into the Lebanese cultural field: the right to a memory, national contrition, the school of the people, the identity of our suffering, an analysis of war in its aftermath, an accounting approach of common properties… The Foundation sets out to diffuse a civic culture distinct from controversy among rival associates.
For more information, please visit the website of Lebanese Foundation for Permanent Civil Peace: http://www.lfpcp.org or the Facebook page: http://facebook.com/lfpcp
