COMMEMORATION SPEECH OF THE 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ST RAPHAEL MARINA
Given by Mrs Farah Shammas, Managing Director, St Raphael Resort and Marina
In 1981 Mr Shukri Hanna Shammas signed an agreement with the Republic of Cyprus to build a marina, hotel and 60 unit condominium. The marina was the first to open in summer 1986 and was the first and largest commercial marina not only in Cyprus, but in the whole area of the Eastern Mediterranean with the capacity of 250 berths and taking yachts of up to 21 meters. The whole project cost approximately 35 million pounds, all of which came from overseas.
Shukri Hanna Shammas was always a man of vision and patience. He careful chose this area of Limassol to build his project, and he always told us to wait and see as this area would flourish to become the most desirable area of Limassol. He was of course right. When speaking during the signing of the contract, he used a proverb: An old man was planting date trees in Southern Iraq. He was approached by a young man who asked him: ‘Do you expect to eat dates from the trees you are planting?’ and the answer of the old man was ‘They planted and we ate, we plant and they eat’. He then went on to say that ‘Most business people go for fast profit, but it is only the farsighted like that old man who are responsible for progress. A Marina is a losing project for the first five to ten years but building one which helps the country progress is farsighted. We are signing now a contract to build a private Marina in Cyprus, and that is the first in the eastern Mediterranean. It is to have 250 berths and will take boats up to 21 meters as it would have a depth of five meters at the deeper end. Most Marinas are financed and built by Governments because of their slow profit as investments but we are launching into this one as a mark of our confidence in this country, Cyprus. We hope that Cypriots will appreciate that, by granting us their confidence and collaboration’.
Sadly, my grandfather died in 1993, just six years after the marina opened and only five years after the opening of the hotel, but he lived long enough to see this project begin its journey. H.E. Mr Nadim Dimechkeih, the Lebanese Ambassador to the UK and USA, said ‘with the death of Shukri Shammas, Lebanon lost one of its most distinguished citizens’. This year, 2016, for the American University of Beirut’s 150th anniversary, Mr Shukri Hanna Shammas was commemorated on the Beirut promenade as one of the most prevalent men who studied there and as a business leader. In fact, he is still the only graduate to hold the record of graduating the University with five degrees simultaneously.
At his memorial ceremony, Mrs Myrna Bustani said of him ‘He was a wise man, a generous man, a patient man. But he was not an ordinary man… With an Eastern outlook to the West, and a Western outlook to the East, he was a man of vision, of realistic vision. He was not a dreamer, he was a doer.’
Shukri Shammas was in in the book of ‘Who’s Who for his many accomplishments which included co-founding C.A.T. Constructing and Trading Company (one of the leading contracting and construction organisations in the world), founding Rabiya residential area in Lebanon, his bank Banque de L’Industrie et du Travail SAL. He created scholarship programmes at AUB and was on the Board of Trustees of AUB for sixteen years.
While Mr Shukri Shammas had the vision, it was his son, Mr Nizam Shammas, whose hard work, determination and commitment has seen the vision realised and executed, along with constant development and reinvestment over the past 30 years. Therefore on this special occasion of celebrating the first part of the 30 year anniversary of our marina, we would like to raise a glass to the memory of Mr Shukri Hanna Shammas, to his legacy, wisdom and kindness, and also for his children, in particular Mr Nizam Shammas, our Chairman, who have ensured the continuation of this project in his memory, and now entrusted myself as Managing Director to continue this progress as part of the third generation.
It has saddened our family greatly that after 30 years of our continuous support of Cyprus and investment in these projects, that our Marina’s breakwaters are yet to be registered at the Land Registry, and there is an ongoing dispute with the government that appears to have reached a deadlock. Despite the above, we are hopeful that the measures being currently taken and the pressures we have had to assert will push the issue forward quickly to find a resolution for the benefit of everyone.
We remain hopeful that the country our family fell in love with so many years ago, has not completely changed and that there are still some here who have the foresight for growth and entrepreneurship so that we can continue to support with all our efforts the community and families who have been part of our team for so long, and that together all of our children and grandchildren too will reap the benefits that this generation is sowing.