By Sidi Mohammed
DOHA: The cultural committee for the upcoming GCC Cultural Ministers Meeting held a session yesterday at the Ritz-Carlton here.
Faleh Al Ajlan Al Hageri, Culture Department Director at the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, who chaired the meeting said they discussed a number of joint issues and cultural activities in order to strengthen cultural cooperation among member states. Among the agenda discussed was that cultural programmes should be covered by the media especially by “Al Maseera” magazine of GCC. In addition, they also discussed establishing a permanent fine art exhibition in Qatar. Qatar should provide a comprehensive study about the exhibition at the next meeting of the committee.
Committee members have suggested reduction in the number of activities and honorees from the GCC because there are many award-giving bodies in the bloc.
Al Hageri added that the committee has recommended that the cultural activities for GCC should be posted on the Secretariat General website, so that the members can communicate with each other in a better way.
The committee has moved this year’s Film festival of the UAE to next year, as well as this year’s GCC Music festival to 2017.
Many other topics were discussed and the ones they agree on will be taken up with undersecretaries and if adopted, they will be taken up by the Ministers of Culture at their meeting on Thursday. Al Hageri said that after the Ministers’ meeting, some Gulf cultural figures will be honoured, including three Qataris — Faleh Fayez, Mohssein Al Hageri and Issa Al Malki.
The Peninsula
