President of Guinea receives representatives

Alpha Conde, President of Guinea, recently received the members of an Emirati delegation that participated in the naming of Conakry as the World Book Capital for 2017.

The delegation, which included representatives of the Emirates Publishers Association, was invited by the organising committee that managed Conakry’s campaign to attain the title of World Book Capital.

It also included Rashid Mohammed Al Kous, Executive Director of the Association; Hala Al Hamoud Al Ali, Administrative Assistant; Mahmoud Al Ali, Chairman of the Dubai Health Authority and Editor and Presenter at the Dubai Media Corporation, and Sahar Al Awadhi, Photographer.

During the meeting, President Conde praised the UAE’s cultural experience, especially those of Sharjah, and the achievements of H.H. Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Sharjah, which have made the emirate a beacon of knowledge and culture and recently crowned it the World Book Capital for 2019.

The three-day visit to Conakry included many introductory meetings and cultural programmes, as well as the attendance of the Islamic Culture Competition, organised by the Guinean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the launch of a minor exhibition of a range of books in Arabic that were published by Dr. Sheikh Sultan bin Mohammed and several publishing houses, which are under the umbrella of the Emirati Publishers Association.

The delegation also visited the personal library of the Guinean professor, historian and novelist, Tamsir Niane, which was restored through a donation from Sheikh Sultan, after a massive fire damaged many old and rare books and manuscripts.

The delegation met with several Guinean figures, as well as Dr Abdulaziz Altwaijri, Director General of the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (ISESCO), to discuss ways of promoting mutual co-operation and many cultural issues of mutual concern.

The delegation also met with the president of the local writers federation and many Guinean writers, to discuss ways of enhancing the ties between Sharjah and Conakry, the possibility of translating books and bringing writers to Sharjah to support them.