Lebanon launches the ‘Best Cooperative Project’ contest

The director of the Economic and Social Fund for Development (ESFD), Haitham Omar, launched yesterday a contest for the ‘best cooperative project’ in the beekeeping, olives and fish industries at the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture in Beirut. Participants representing some 165 cooperative associations all over Lebanon partook in the competition which comes as part of the EU funded Recovery of Local Economies in Lebanon (RELOC) program. The latter, it should be noted, aims at contributing to the reduction of production cost, increasing marketing channels, creating jobs and ensuring the sustainability of outputs of implemented projects. The initiative focuses mainly on stimulating the local economy in areas under economic pressure as a result of hosting significant numbers of Syrian refugees. On that occasion, the general director of cooperatives, Gloria Abu Zeid, stressed the need to support agriculture cooperative-run small enterprises and projects that help in the advancement of local communities, and result in a positive though indirect impact on the overall national economy. (Al Diyar, March 4, 2016)