The minister of industry in the caretaker government, Hussein Haj Hassan, said yesterday the situation of industry and agriculture in Lebanon is not great, pressing for resolving the problem of cost of production and illicit competition of foreign goods, or for settling the issue of customs deterrents enforced by importing countries. He explained that most of such deterrents are not related to quality of production or rules or origin, and that all countries are encumbering our exports. Haj Hassan was speaking during his sponsorship of an award ceremony for the winners of Student StarPack packaging design context 2018 in collaboration with UNIDO and LibanPack. Likewise, LibanPack director, Suha Atallah, said the event coincides with the tenth anniversary for the inception of the Lebanese Packaging Center which has become well known at the national, Arab and international levels through its active contribution to the World Packaging Organization. Atallah also disclosed that she is working to increase the number of members from Arab states, announcing the launch of StarPack Professional which will allow industrialists to compete for the best packaging designs in markets. (Al Mustaqbal, Al Diyar, June 28, 2018)