BEIRUT: French Municipality Ile-de-France and the Municipality of Beirut called for more cooperation in developmental projects of public spaces Tuesday. During a workshop entitled “Policy challenges for sustainable development of public spaces in Beirut,” local officials said that cooperation between France and Lebanon should continue and expand after the successful completion of projects since 2001. “This workshop is an innovative one ... Engineers and experts together can discuss and come up with significant development projects,” said Eric Bouvard of the Municipality of Ile-de-France that administers the city of Paris. Deputy Mayor of Beirut Nadim Abu Rizk said France has helped Lebanon in a number of sectors and voiced hope that the workshops between the two municipalities would assist Beirut in its upcoming development projects. “Relations between the municipality of Beirut and the municipality of Ile-de-France are strong and they have resulted in important developmental projects in Beirut,” Rizk said.