The Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation and Iraq’s General House of Cultural Affairs have signed a mutual cooperation agreement that involves collaborating and exchanging views on key issues in Arab thought. Both entities believe that having a framework for cooperation between them will definitely enhance and strengthen intellectual, scientific and research connections between them and enable them to better deal with the challenges facing Arab culture and thought and usher in a new prosperous era for Arab thought.
The signing ceremony, which took place on the sidelines of the activities of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair,was attended by the Iraqi Minister of Culture Tourism and Antiquities, HE Dr. Hassan Nazim. The agreement was signed on the side of Al Owais Cultural Foundation by the Foundation’s Executive Director, Mr. Ibrahim Al Hashemi and by Dr. Arif Al Saedi, as a representative of the General House of Cultural Affairs in Iraq.
The agreement encourages cooperation between the two entities in the aim of realizing their objectives, whether through exchanging views, consultancies and visits and conducting joint studies, workshops and symposiums as well as collaborating in terms of books, journals and scientific and cultural information. It also aims at carrying out joint projects that are in line with their objectives, which will be subject to further agreements or protocols on a case by case basis. Moreover, both parties are to regularly exchange information and documents about issues of common interest and also work on hosting a number of joint activities and events that serve important intellectual, scientific and cultural causes.
Furthermore, the agreement states that both parties shall share their databases about Arab and international cultural personalities in order to expand the database of each party. In addition, a technical committee is to be formed, which will convene as required and joint publications will be released.
It is worth mentioning that the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Foundation has previously signed a number of agreements and memorandums of understanding with similar institutions such as Abdul Hamid Shouman Foundation (Jordan), Arab Thought Foundation and Arab Thought Forum (Lebanon), the Supreme Council of Culture (Egypt) as well as other prominent cultural institutions in the Arab world.
