Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan, Minister of Culture and head of theSaudi delegation at the 40th UNESCO General Conference held in Paris on Fridaysaid that Saudi Arabia, under the guidance of King Salman bin Abdul-Azizand Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdul-Aziz, Crown Prince, views culture inits general concept as one of the most important foundations that support thedirections of human development, and build bridges of understanding betweensocieties in order to promote a stronger world, where people are interconnectedby their different cultures, pointing out Saudi Arabia's keenness to cooperatewith UNESCO.
"Culture and the arts in SaudiArabia are one of the pillars of the national transformation through the Kingdomvision 2030, and its goal is to contribute to building a vibrant society, aprosperous economy and an ambitious homeland," Prince Badr added, confirmingthat Saudi Arabia is taking confident steps towards a more prosperousfuture through the Kingdom vision 2030, which soon began to reflectpositively in several sectors, including education, culture and the arts.
Prince Badr reiterated Saudi Arabia's determination to continue collaborationwith UNESCO till achieving the United Nations Sustainable DevelopmentGoals 2030, which are in line with the objectives of the Kingdom vision 2030for the future.
Prince Badr pointed out that Saudi Arabia has demonstrated itseffectiveness and its eagerness to achieve the objectives of joint action workat UNESCO, saying "From its responsibility as a founding country, SaudiArabia made a significant contribution to the UNESCO budget in 1984,made a generous donation of $20mn in 2011, and announced its commitment toallocate $25mn to fund UNESCO's strategic heritage programs and heritageconservation-related work through signing the Letter of Intent last July.
Prince Badr explained that Saudi Arabia believes that theeducation and rehabilitation of young people is the basis of any process ofbuilding and promoting culture in our societies, while feeding them with humanvalues "which we emphasize in our work, through a more developed and opensystem to different cultures, because this would strengthen the social fabricand open the doors of great peace between nations".
"In Saudi Arabia, we have sought to achieve this, in harmony with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, through our deep belief in the importance of the non-profit sector partnership with other sectors, being a key partner in development," Prince Badr said.
Prince Badr mentioned that Saudi Arabia established the National Center for the Development of the non-profit sector, which aims to activate the role of sector organizations and expand it in developmental areas.
Prince Badr also referred to the Ministry of Culture work to develop andstrengthen community participation, through an integrated plan that stimulatesparticipation contributing to the development of culture and heritage that opento the world that hat gives the world an opportunity to look closely at thetreasures and mysteries of human civilizations that formed societies andcontributed to this cultural richness that we are proud of, in our country andits impact spread to the continents of the world. to this cultural richness inour country, its impact spread also to the world.
Prince Badr stressed the importance of youth as an element of enormous power to realize the aspirations and hopes of their communities, noting that empowering Saudi youth continues at a faster pace, through the creation of environments that stimulate their creativity in various fields, support and release their energies, and engage them with motivation and inspiration in everything related to building their country, in partnership with civil society organizations.
Prince Badr pointed out that Saudi Arabia will host in March next year, the World Summit AI, which will be an annual global forum for the exchange of experiences and partnerships between actors and companies in the world of data and artificial intelligence locally and internationally, to put this advanced science in the context of serving all mankind.
In conclusion, Prince Badr confirmed that UNESCO's Member States turned visions to reality, saying "We attend with the intention to succeed in realizing the UNESCO's objectives to serve all of them, in cooperation and integration, hand in hand, for a better world".
