Minister of Emigration Welcomes OIC of UNESCO Regional Office in Cairo to Discuss Forthcoming Cooperation

As Dr. Nuria Sanz, OIC UNESCO Office in Cairo praises the efforts of the Ministry of Emigration in preserving the Egyptian identity and culture of Egyptians abroad, Ambassador Soha ElGendi also confirms her keenness to cooperate with UNESCO in pioneer initiatives aiming to foster the cultural linkages among diaspora communities in Egypt and abroad.

Ambassador Soha ElGendi, Minister of State for Emigration and Egyptian Expatriates’ Affairs Abroad, welcomes Dr. Nuria Sanz, Director of the UNESCO Regional Office for Science in the Arab States, to discuss the aspects of cooperation between the Ministry UNESCO in several working files of common interest, in the presence of Dr. Saber Solaiman, Assistant Minister of Migration for Institutional Development Affairs and the supervisor of the Minister's Office, and Dr. Salma Saqr, Assistant Minister of Migration for International Cooperation.

Dr. Sanz praised the efforts of the Ministry to implement this large number of presidential initiatives that come under the generous patronage of the President of the Republic to increase the cultural and emotional interdependence of Egyptian citizens abroad, whose number is about 14 million. This figure reflects the tremendous effort being made until the objectives of these initiatives reach the target audience with its different segments and interests, which prompted UNESCO to cooperate with the Ministry of Immigration to maximize these efforts.

According to the detailed presentation of the efforts implemented by the Ministry, UNESCO presented initiatives on formal and non-formal education, training and teaching educative materials for diaspora communities in support of the Minister's efforts related to the visit of the young communities to World Heritage sites and Biosphere reserves, the joint celebration of United Nations days in Egypt related to Arabic language.

Dr. Sanz also outlined the rationale of the UNESCO programme “Memory of the World” as a suitable methodology to document the fertile inter-community dialogues among Egyptian, Greek, and Cyprus communities in Egypt and abroad.

The meeting concluded with an agreement to start holding technical discussions between the two working groups of the Ministry of Migration and UNESCO to discuss mechanisms for joint work, including the celebration of World Arabic Language Day next December.