The official visit from a Palestinian delegation interested in setting up new technical and trade relations with Carrara and companies operating in the marble and related technology industry came to an end with a meeting at IMM’s head offices.
The delegation included the Chairman of the Union of Stone & Marble in Palestine, Suhbi Thawabtih, together with Maher Hushaysh representing the Palestine Stone Export Consortium and Charles Steel, advisor to the Quartet representative in Jerusalem, Tony Blair.
A delegation announced by the General Consulate of Italy in Jerusalem and extremely representative considering that the Quartet includes nations and international and supranational entities involved in mediating the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia, who have appointed Tony Blair as their special envoy to help the peace process by setting up an economic and productive apparatus.
The aim of the visit, the first official meeting of which took place at the Chamber of Commerce, was to present the Palestinian companies’ products and start discussing possible forms of cooperation by meeting with institutions and organisations operating in the stone industry.
The delegation then of course met with representatives from the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine Carrara at the company’s head offices to present the Palestinian industry and discuss possible working relationships and the sharing of information. An important opportunity for the promotion of Palestinian natural stone products may be their participation in Carrara Marmotec, due to be held from 23 to 26 May, with both a stand and an official delegation which the delegation are now considering carefully. There is a very keen interest in working with the IMM, as emphasized by the Chairman Suhbi Thawabth “building relations with academia and research as well as with the IMM is necessary in order to make production comply with the protocols and standards accepted by the European market which is prime for us”.
With regard to this, the official meeting between the Carrara Export Consortium and the Union of Stone & Marble in Palestine also took place in the offices. This was the last of a series of appointments and meetings which have been going on over the last two years. It is in fact the Carrara Export Consortium and its companies that the Palestinian Union has chosen as its ideal partners for the marketing plan. The agreement, which the Carrara Export office and Tony Blair’s Quartet have been working together on for months now, stemmed from the recognition of the common intent and the structural and business similarities between the two organisations. It is hoped that there will soon be an official agreement between the parties. “The meeting - said Sabrina Corsi, Chairman of Carrara Export – was very useful to consolidate the strategic relations already underway with the Union of Stone & Marble in Palestine; this is one of the reasons why we wanted our exhibition centre to host it, thereby confirming the constant synergy with CarraraFiere and IMM, aiming at a plan which may bring real opportunities to the mutual advantage of the foreign partners, our member companies and the entire area.
At the end of the meeting the group spent a long time at the Internazionale Marmi e Macchine’s marble library where Paola Blasi, head of ISICENTRY, the office responsible for providing comprehensive information on the international stone industry, showed ( see photo) them around and gave them information on the individual materials.
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