• January 8: Inauguration of Issam Fares Center for Technology at the Antonine University in Hadath
• January 14: Fares pays a visit to Patriarch Ignatius IV Hazim in Balamand
• January 16: Fares receives in his office the head of the Polish Senate Mr. Longin Pastusiak
• January 22: Fares attends the Greek-Lebanese talks held at the Presidential Palace of Baabda on the occasion of the official visit paid by the President of Greece Mr. Constantine Stephanopoulos
• January 27: Fares represents the Lebanese President during the National Congress for the Abolition of Political Sectarianism at the Safir- Heliopolitan Hotel
• February 16-23: Fares pays a presidential visit to Brazil
• February 18: On behalf of Lebanon, Fares signs in Brazil a cooperation agreement in the field of electric power
• March 3: Fares represents the Lebanese President in the Golden Jubilee anniversary of the ordination of the Armenian Catholic Patriarch Hovannes-Bedros XVIII Kasparian at the UNESCO Palace
• March 12: During an official visit to Morocco, Fares receives a Shield of Honor from the Casablanca Chamber of Trade, Industry& Services
• March 17: Fares attends the Hungarian-Lebanese talks held at the Presidential Palace of Baabda on the occasion of the official visit paid by the President of Hungary Mr. Ferenc Madl
On the same day, Fares receives the head of Government of the Australian State of Victoria Mr. Steve Brax on the head of a large delegation
• March 19: Meeting with the Directors and correspondents of the Arab Press in Beirut
Meeting with the Chairperson of the working group for Lebanon’s accession to the World Trade Organization French Minister Laurence Dubois
• March 23: Fares receives the Deputy Civil Administrator of Iraq US Ambassador Mr. Richard Jones
• March 26-27: Fares sponsors the annual conference of the study center of La Sagesse University on “The Public Debt between Reality& Potential Solutions”
• March 31: Fares receives in Washington the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Task Force for Lebanon in recognition of his significant political achievements and great contributions
• May 12: Mr. Issam Fares& Mrs. Hala Fares hold a lunch banquet in honor of the visiting Armenian President Mr. Robert Kocharian& his wife
• May 14-17: Fares on a presidential visit to Rome& the Vatican, meets His Holiness Pope John Paul II
• May 22-23: Fares attends the Arab Summit in Tunis
• June 9: Russian President Mr. Vladimir Putin offers to Fares at Beirut’s Phoenicia Hotel the Medal of Saint Petersburg’s Tercentenary in recognition of his efforts to promote bilateral ties
• June 27: Fares receives the Archbishop of Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
• July 5-6: Fares pays an official trip to Poland during which he is awarded the Commandoria With Star of the Order of Merit
• July 7-8: Fares on a presidential visit to Belarus where he signs three cooperation agreements
• July 27: Mr. Issam& Mrs. Hala Fares organize a farewell banquet to outgoing US Ambassador Mr. Vincent Battle in al-Bustan Hotel
• August 22, 2004: Fares attends and sponsors Akkar’s Second Festival for Tourism& Shopping which was held upon the invitation of Akkar’s Traders Association and the Fares Foundation
• September 12: Fares represents the Lebanese President in the removal of the memorial ceremony of Antoun Saadeh
• September 22: Fares represents Lebanon in the 59th UN General Assembly in New York
On the sidelines of the Assembly, Fares meets UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan, UN envoy Mr. Terje Roed-Larsen, Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Bahrain’s Prime Minister& Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Khalifah& the President of Brazil Luis Inacio Lula da Silva
• September 23: Fares attends the dinner banquet held by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Michel Barnier
• September 24: Fares attends in New York a reception held by the Prince Albert of Monaco and visits the headquarters of the permanent mission of Lebanon at the UN
• October 10: Mr. Issam Fares& Mrs. Hala Fares hold a lunch banquet in honor of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Al Missned
• October 12: Fares represents the Lebanese President in the first conference for the liberalization of trade in services in the Arab World
• October 16: Fares sponsors the laying of the foundation cornerstone of the Pastoral Center and the Unity Church of the Melkite Greek Catholics in Koura, North Lebanon
• October 27: Fares attends the 20th anniversary of the Center for Lebanese Studies in Oxford-London, gives a conference dubbed ‘Lebanon and the Regional Problems’
• November 10: Certificate presented in appreciation of Fares’ philanthropy and continued support of the Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies& the 8th Issam Fares Lecture given by US Senator Mrs. Hillary Rodham Clinton, under the title ‘America’s Foreign Policy Challenges in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Wake of this Presidential Election’
• November 18: Fares sponsors the 20th annual medical congress of the Hospital of St. George and the Medicine Faculty at the Balamand University
• November 21: Fares sponsored the event held by the Syriac League, receives the decoration of Saint Aphrem the Syrian Decoration for Commander
• November 22-23: Fares embarks on a two-day presidential visit to Qatar
• December 14: Fares represents the Lebanese President in an event during which he laid the cornerstone of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy& International Affairs at the American University of Beirut
• December 17: Fares to CNBC: Lebanon needs ‘Beirut 1’, not ‘Paris 3’
• December 19: Fares states from his residence in Bayno, ‘I support an electoral law that reflects a sound popular representation’