The Canada Egypt Business Council “CEBC” held a special dinner and discussion on March 17th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel with H.E. Farouk Hosny, Egypt’s Minister of Culture, to discuss the topic of “UNESCO: Why Egypt?”

Mr. Moatz Raslan, Chairman of CEBC, took the podium to acknowledge the overwhelming attendance, which included prominent ministers; foreign ambassadors and CEBC members. He gave a brief on the minister’s background and professional career path, noting his success and dedication eversince he was the Director of “The Anfoushy Culture Palace”, then the Cultural Attaché and Director of the “Egyptian Cultural Center in Paris”, then the Director of the “Egyptian Academy in Rome” before his appointment as the Minister of Culture 19 years ago. “He initiated the transferal of the current Egyptian Museum to create the largest museum in the world, developed and restored “Dar El-Kutub” and established the “Cultural Development Fund” responsible for producing and promoting cultural products”, Mr. Raslan said.

Praising the minister’s background in the field of cultural evolution in Egypt, Mr. Raslan referred to him as “a leading contemporary abstract painter” as well. Adding that despite the many grave challenges his dual portfolio had entailed, His Excellency managed successfully to accomplish many triumphs by propagating culture, awareness and values through promoting Egypt’s cultural heritage.

Raslan then introduced the minister, who began by thanking the council for hosting the event and expressed his admiration towards its role and activities, then started his speech by highlighting the importance of culture as the means and indicator for social civilization of any country. “The Ministry’s utmost responsibility is to propagate culture, awareness and values, this is not an easy job in any developing country, especially Egypt”, noted the minister.

The minister added that Egypt has the right to be proud of this principally rich cultural heritage that stretches from the Pharaohs and the Lighthouse of Alexandria which is a technical masterpiece to the famous Library of Alexandria whose tradition lives on in the modern Bibliotheca Alexandrina.

“The Ministry of Culture has placed Egypt’s museums on top of its priorities by working hard to preserve Egypt’s priceless treasures, both stored and newly-discovered in order to create the best environment to display them and to release the pressure in some overstuffed museums, in addition to the inauguration of new regional and national museums as well as the re-opening of others after restoration and development to bring them up to international standards”, said the minister.

He also stressed on the importance of an integrated plan for achieving perceivable cultural development in Egypt, noting that developing the cultural sector in Egypt in a sustainable manner “is our real challenge”. He spoke of addressing the social, cultural and intellectual participation for achieving this national goal.

His Excellency the Minister also affirmed that the work in Historic Cairo and the National Museum of Civilization will not, under any circumstances, be halted; the mega-projects, which were described as lying under his own direct responsibility, will continue regardless of the presence or absence of any person. He also stressed on the importance of the society’s role as the cornerstone of the countries’ cultures and how important to us not to loose the essence of our historical culture.

The minister stressed on the importance of a national renaissance with the support of the government in the field of culture, “It is not a one man show, the society as a whole has an effective role to play and advance the cultural level” said the minister. He also referred to some immense projects that will have a great cultural effect in Egypt to better benefit from the several monumental sites in Cairo such as “ El Moez Street” and “El Qaherah West El Balad” which is a long street with varieties of restaurants, cafes and shops all with the oriental Egyptian style that attract a lot of viewers. These projects are open for new investments as long as they are moving along with the idea of preserving ancient Egypt. Other vast projects were also mentioned among which was painting the downtown buildings with one color giving a sense of the Egyptian historic unity.
Hosny went on to discuss the main topic of his speech, which was his nomination for the post of Director-General of UNESCO. Regarding this issue he commented by saying that the choice of an Arab figure for such a post would be an achievement for the Arab world and requires much effort to draw up new plans, visions and policies for UNESCO. “My nomination is really a great honor but Egypt will always be in my heart and my first and last priority,” said the minister.
Mr. Mohamed Salmawy, Editor-in-Chief of Al Ahram Hebdo Newspaper and President of the Egyptian Writers’ Union moderated the discussion, outlining the many cultural endeavors attained by the Minister of Culture. Mr. Salmawy began his speech by explaining that culture has always been a basic option while addressing ongoing trends of national action to create new generations capable of coping with the era’s developments and that is what Minister Farouk Hosny has managed to achieve. He added that the minister succeeded to build a cultural infrastructure that can accentuate Egypt’s accomplishments in the cultural realm through the preservation of the Pharonic, Coptic and Islamic monuments; restoration of museums and cultural institutions; renovation of national library and archives (Dar Al-Kutub), this is in addition to the inaugurations and re-openings of many museums.
Dr Farouk Hosny then proceeded to answer questions presented by the audience covering vital cultural topics such as considering the physical dimensions and restoration of archaeological sites, the development of cultural destinations and artistic fields’ development, disintegration of Egypt’s current literature, music and art, and the principle of freedom of expressions and speeches.