The Ministry of Culture and Youth released its strategic plan for Expo 2020 Dubai, which also conducted a series of international conferences. The Ministry’s programme aims to highlight the UAE’s cultural landscape’s richness and diversity, as well as its progress and development in the creative and intellectual sectors, as well as its global status in these fields.
Commenting on the Ministry of Culture and Youth’s participation in Expo 2020 Dubai, Her Excellency Noura Bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth, said: “Expo 2020 Dubai is an opportunity to spotlight the UAE’s knowledge and cultural diversity. Based on the principles of tolerance, harmony and communication, the Expo will be a convergence of people and cultures from across the world.”
She also said, “Peaceful coexistence is our legacy, the core of our identity and the foundation of the country established by the late Founding Father of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. This is the direction our wise leadership has followed in the last 50 years, and as we look forward to the next 50, we reflect upon our country’s human and cultural mission and the values of our cultural heritage.”
Her Excellency added: “The Ministry of Culture and Youth’s participation in this strategic event is in line with its vision to establish the importance of the cultural, media and youth sectors and maximize their contribution to nation’s economy. We aim to boost our cultural and creative industries by investing in the creativity and capability of youth. These efforts will bolster the UAE’s position as a global hub for supporting youth, media, culture and creativity in all its forms.”
Based on the Expo’s tagline, ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,’ the Ministry of Culture and Youth wants to create an environment that promotes positive communication between different cultures and peoples through its activities. The Ministry’s involvement reinforces its strategic role in enhancing the UAE’s and worldwide creative and cultural movements, as well as developing a strong network of links with regional and international organisations working in the field.
During the Expo, a number of activities and projects will be held to highlight the UAE’s cultural identity, heritage, and civilization. The Ministry will also highlight its efforts to construct an infrastructure to support the Cultural and Creative Industries as a possible building block of a knowledge-based economy that contributes to long-term development.
The Ministry is organizing the World Conference on Creative Economy (WCCE), to coincide with UNESCO’s declaration of the year 2021 as the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development.
The conference will focus on the problems that the Covid-19 pandemic poses to the cultural and creative sectors, as well as the emergence of new chances to promote creative enterprise and culture as a means of promoting tolerance and social cohesion. The Ministry has worked to develop a national programme to support creative, distinctive, and talented persons, making the UAE a global leader in this field.
Representatives from governments, politicians, international organisations, academics, businesses, and innovators will attend the World Conference on Creative Economy in 2021. Two conferences will take place during the event, one for innovative economists and the other for Ministers.
The Ministry is hosting the Al Burda Award and Festival from December 19th to 21st in order to strengthen the UAE’s status as a cultural centre and incubator for Islamic creative arts. Dialogue discussions, art exhibitions, and performances featuring thinkers and innovators from around the world will be held during the course of the three-day event. The festival serves as a forum for exchanging ideas and collaborating on creative projects to honour Islamic culture. Poetry, Arabic calligraphy, ornamentation, and Arabic typography are among the four categories for which the Al Burda Award will be given.
The “Arabic Language Summit” is being held in connection with the International Day of the Arabic Language, which is observed every year on December 18. The summit will address the state of the Arabic language, as well as the difficulties that it has in being taught and disseminated in non-Arabic-speaking countries. The summit will also develop an objective assessment of Arabic’s current status, not only as an important component of Arab identity and a tool for interaction and exchange of ideas among Arab societies, but also as a tool for a cognitive push toward a more enlightened contemporaneity and promising future.
Experts, academics, and interested people will be invited to share their thoughts on the most serious issues facing the language today at the summit. It will serve as a forum for debating some of the issues raised in the Ministry of Culture and Youth’s ‘The Future of the Arabic Language Status Report,’ published in collaboration with the Advisory Council on the Arabic Language. The report, whose first edition was published in December 2020, looks into the difficulties facing the Arabic language and suggests a number of concrete initiatives for its development.
On the 19th and 20th of December 2021, the Ministry will host the 22nd Session of the Conference of Arab Culture Ministers, which will review and develop a comprehensive plan for Arab culture, address challenges to cultural heritage preservation, and discuss the unification of strategic efforts to develop the system of cultural and creative industries. It will also explore areas of collaborative action to enhance Arab cultural collaboration with various civilizations around the world through a number of joint initiatives and projects, as well as the UAE’s efforts in these areas.
