The Minister of Culture and Arts, Wafaa Chaalal, said on Wednesday, that there is “a political will on the part of the President of the Republic, Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to strengthen cultural links, and to deepen the bonds of brotherliness between the Algerian and Egyptian peoples”, recalling the decision of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during the working and fraternal visit to the Republic. Arab Egypt “to open an Algerian cultural center in Egypt in response to the demands of the community, and to preserve the national identity.”
Ms. Chaalal underlined, on the sidelines of her participation in the opening of the Cairo International Book Fair, that “her ministry will be present in the program, and we are keen that the executives of this center are people of culture and experience so that the center is effective,” given that the specialists have the mechanisms that allow the center to be more efficient.
The minister pointed out, in a related context, that the problem that some cultural centers experience is “irrational management,” especially due to human the element, and the priority of quantity over quality, saying, “Instead of benefiting from the budget in developing the program and marketing for culture, it is spent on wages.”
With regard to the demands of the Algerian community in many countries to open cultural centers, the minister said that “it’s not only about opening the Algerian cultural center in Egypt but in other countries as well, and in the meantime, the ministry intends to organize Algerian cultural weeks to introduce the national identity.”
In this context, she explained, “We are in consultations with our diplomatic representations abroad to organize these weeks within the framework of soft diplomacy, to mitigate the impact of the absence of cultural centers.”
Speaking about the International Book Fair in Algeria, SILA, scheduled for next March, the Minister of the Sector reported that 134 Egyptian publishing houses have confirmed their presence so far in the fair, which resumes after an interruption due to the Corona pandemic.
Algeria is attending the 53rd Cairo International Book Fair with more than 600 titles of books and publications in various literary and historical fields, luxury books on cultural heritage and architecture, as well as children’s and young people’s books, as they constitute the “most prominent” publications in the last two years.
It’s worth recalling that on the sidelines of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s visit to Egypt on January 24 and 25, the Minister of Culture and Arts held consultations with her Egyptian counterpart, Enas Abdel Dayem, and it was agreed to establish an Algerian-Egyptian joint committee within the framework of the eighth joint higher committee of the two countries, which is being prepared.
For her part, the Egyptian Minister of Culture, Enas Abdel Dayem, suggested going to a joint production of films dealing with the common history between the two countries, to highlight Arab nationalism, which Algeria favorably welcomed.
