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    At a major international ceremony: Official launch of ICESCO Year of Youth under patronage of President of Egypt in New Administrative Capital

    Under the patronage of His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the ICESCO Year of Youth was officially launched in a major international ceremony held in the new administrative capital of the Arab Republic of Egypt. The ceremony was attended by Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, Egyptian Prime Minister, on behalf of the President, and saw the participation of members of the Egyptian Government, senior officials, ministers, ambassadors and youth delegations from the Member States of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO).

    The ceremony opened with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, during a mock conference simulating ICESCO’s General Conference, presented by young representatives of the Organization’s Member States, in the presence of the Egyptian Prime Minister; the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, President of the Egyptian National Commission, President of ICESCO’s General Conference, Dr. Mohamed Ayman Ashour; and ICESCO Director-General, Dr. Salim M. AlMalik.

    The mock conference featured discussions on the major challenges facing the Islamic world in the fields of education, science, culture, communication and humanities, which was an opportunity for the young participants to present recommendations on the subject. The activity also focused on the outputs of the ICESCO Innovation Hubs for the youth of the Islamic world and beyond, which were hosted by the Creativity and Innovation Center at Ain Shams University, and yielded a set of ideas and proposals with the aim of contributing to developing strategies to improve educational and social conditions and safeguard and promote heritage in the countries of the Islamic world.

    Following the youth mock conference, Dr. Madbouly gave an address where he conveyed the greetings of His Excellency President El-Sisi to the participants, wishing success for the ICESCO Year of Youth initiative. He also highlighted the great interest that the Egyptian President pays to youth issues as well as to training them to be action takers, stressing their pivotal role in the development movements the country is witnessing.

    Moreover, the Egyptian Prime Minister announced the launch of a number of initiatives, to be implemented as part of the ICESCO Year of Youth, in coordination between the Member States to adopt youth ideas. He stated that these initiatives include setting up a youth council in the Islamic world to serve as a platform for creating promising leaderships, creating opportunities for partnership between talented people and funding bodies, and providing presidential grants to support young talents in the Islamic world, in addition to launching a fund to support talented and innovative people, sponsoring and financing projects to build young people’s capacities, and organizing a number of competitions.

    In his address at the ceremony, Dr. Al-Malik, expressed his thanks to the Arab Republic of Egypt for hosting the launch ceremony, and to His Excellency President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi for granting his patronage to the ICESCO Year of Youth, commending Egypt’s efforts to accord due attention to its youth and build their creative and innovative capacities.

    The Director-General also expressed ICESCO’s pride to be named, “The Young Organization,” stating that the Organization spares no effort in creating programs to build the capacities of young people and holding conferences and seminars for them in the fields of tomorrow’s professions, artificial intelligence, space sciences, heritage preservation, among others.

    In addition, Dr. Al-Malik explained that celebrating the Year of Youth stands witness to the Organization’s faith in the potential of youth, and its determination to design impactful projects and initiatives that support them and prepare them for the future. He added that the Islamic world counts on its youth to achieve progress, calling on the new generations to overcome differences and embrace growth and prosperity.

    For his part, Dr. Mohamed Ayman Ashour, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, President of the Egyptian National Commission for Education, Science and Culture, President of ICESCO’s General Conference, highlighted Egypt’s achievements since assuming the presidency of the Organization’s General Conference. He reviewed the key principles of the scholarship initiative in Egyptian universities, which His Excellency President El- Sisi offered to students from countries of the Islamic world.

    The Minister stressed the need to promote scientific research and invest in youth, as they represent the majority of the population of the Islamic world, stating that hosting of ICESCO’s Year of Youth reflects Egypt’s keenness to support young people as builders of the future, who will lead the way for their countries to join the ranks of developed nations in the coming years.

    During the ceremony, a number of videos were screened which focused on a variety of topics, notably ICESCO’s vision on youth issues, Egypt’s efforts to build young capacities and the opportunities it provides to young people across the world to study in Egyptian universities, in addition to the work carried by young people at the Innovation Hubs workshops, which were held prior to the launch of the ICESCO Year of Youth.

    The ceremony concluded with an art performance by a choir of young people from the Islamic world in Arabic, English and French, which reflected pride in youth and their ability to defy difficulties in order to build a bright and prosperous future for all.

    ICESCO Holds International Conference on Translation and Artificial Intelligence

    The Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) held a conference themed “Translation and Artificial Intelligence Technology: Translation from and into Arabic as example” on 4 October 2023, in cooperation with the Association of Court Certified Translators of Morocco (ATAJ) in the presence of an elite group of international experts, students and researchers in the field of translation to discuss avenues of fostering the aesthetic and creative dimensions of Arabic translations in digital and non-digital environments, capacity building of young translators, training professionals on machine translation in addition to exchanging experiences in creative translation to improve translation quality.

    The opening session initiated with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, followed by the address of Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, which was delivered on his behalf by Dr. Abdelillah Benarafa, ICESCO Deputy Director-General, stressing the conference’s endeavours to outline the challenges of using AI tools to translate from and into Arabic amid ethical concerns about AI’s distortions of meaning.

    He further expounded the role of translation in lying bridges of communication between diverse nations and cultures, reiterated the ever-growing need for translation, and highlighted ICESCO’s efforts in translating books and articles in various disciplines related to the Islamic world to convey its civilizational message worldwide.

    Afterward, the first session kicked off with an intervention made by Diego Cresceri, CEO of Creative Words, on “Machine Translation and AI: Reality and Challenges”, in which he stressed the need to master AI tools and deal with its limitations. Following, Mohamed Ougamadan, Head of the UN Arabic Department in Geneva, argued that AI helps with quality checking and consistency of translations and comes in handy for languages with low resources and references.

    Speaking next, Mr. Smail Ajbaili, Head of ICESCO Translation Centre, reviewed the history and advantages of machine translation in Arabic and attributed its drawbacks to the rich and polysemous nature of Arabic vocabulary. Mr. Abdel-Fattah Al-Hajmari, Director of the Arabization Coordination Bureau, affiliated with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, made an intervention entitled “Arabic and the much-needed Human Intelligence”. The subsequent intervention, delivered by Muwafaq Faeq Tawfiq, the first interpreter in Al Jazeera News, stressed that translation is not a mere word-for-word process but bears the intended meaning and context and abides by cultural nuances specific to each language.

    The second session, led by experts from the Kingdom of Morocco, the Republic of Lebanon and Malaysia, witnessed rich interventions on the future of simultaneous translation amidst the technological evolution. The panelists were unanimous in their view that machine translation is evolving in terms of speed, quality and accessibility and that it will approach human-level accuracy but is less likely to fully replace translators.

    This International Conference culminated with a workshop on machine translation, delivered by Mr. Diego Cresceri, CEO of Creative Words, for the benefit of students and researchers.

    Discussing Arrangements for Establishing ICESCO Chair for AI Ethics at the University of Technology and Applied Sciences in Oman

    A delegation from the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) held several meetings in the capital of Sultanate of Oman, Muscat, with a host of Omani officials to discuss arrangements for establishing ICESCO Chair for Artificial Intelligence Ethics, which will be hosted by the University of Technology and Applied Sciences in the Sultanate of Oman.

    ICESCO delegation, consisting of Mr. Mohamed Hedi Shili, Head of ICESCO Legal Affairs and International Standards Department and Dr. Salim Al-Habsi, Programs Manager at the Secretariat of National Commissions and Conferences, initiated its visit to Muscat by holding a meeting with Dr. Saeed Al-Rubaie, President of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, and a number of officials in the University to discuss the importance of establishing ICESCO Chair for Artificial Intelligence Ethics, and its potential contributions to capacity building, knowledge transfer, skills development, and strengthening linkages between universities and research and innovation institutions.

    ICESCO delegation met a team of AI development, affiliated to the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology of the Sultanate of Oman, to discuss the importance of ICESCO chair and its prospected outcomes of cooperation in the field of ethics in the use of artificial intelligence.

    ICESCO’s delegation visit culminated with a visit to Ms. Amna Al Balushi, Secretary-General of the Omani National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, in which the delegation thanked the Committee for its efforts and for acting as a link between ICESCO, stakeholders and institutions in the Sultanate of Oman.

    ICESCO Holds an International Workshop on the Latest Human Genome Analysis Techniques

    The Science and Technology Sector at the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), in partnership with the Intergen Genetic and Rare Disease Diagnosis Center in Turkey along with several universities from Pakistan, organized ICESCO’s first international workshop on next-Generation sequencing data analysis. The workshop aimed to reinforce capacities in the field of human genome data analysis, utilizing modern and innovative technology, and developing the skills of healthcare professionals in ICESCO Member States in this area.

    The workshop, held today, Thursday 28 September 2023, through video conferencing under the theme “Building Tomorrow’s Global Genomic Workforce,” saw the participation of more than 500 participants, including doctors, laboratory technicians, medical university students, and researchers interested in understanding how to process genomic data.

    The workshop aimed to provide participants with a solid understanding of next-Generation sequencing data analysis as it represents the future of the medical field and the key to making genomic data practical and readily accessible for utilization in healthcare. Analyzing big datasets in genomic medicine enables researchers and geneticists to dissect the human genome of patients, not only for diagnosing genetic factors causing diseases but also for researching the best approaches to treat them.

    In his remark during the opening session, Dr. Raheel Qamar, Head of the Science and Technology Sector at ICESCO, emphasized the importance of supporting “Building Tomorrow’s Global Genomic Workforce” in the era of advanced genomic technologies. Furthermore, he stressed the need to integrate this workforce into precision genomics medicine and scientific research in this field. Dr. Qamar commended the efforts of ICESCO Member States in promoting collaboration in this domain.

    On his part, Dr. Serdar Ceylaner from the Intergen Center highlighted the importance of training the workforce in the field of big data analysis for next-Generation sequencing and employing it in healthcare within ICESCO Member States.

    Following the opening session, Dr. Haldun Dogan from the Intergen Center led an intensive workshop for the participants, aimed at imparting the knowledge and skills essential for achieving an advanced level of proficiency in next-Generation sequencing data analysis.

    ICESCO Director-General Meets Former UNESCO Director-General in Doha

    Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), met Ms. Irina Bokova, former UNESCO Director-General, following their participation in the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized by ICESCO, and hosted by the State of Qatar, in Doha, on 25-26 September 2023, with the rallying call “Towards the Renewal of Cultural Action in the Islamic World.”

    Dr. Salim M. AlMalik began the meeting by extending his thanks and appreciation to Ms. Bokova for attending as the guest of honor, addressing the Conference’s opening session, and lauding ICESCO’s vision of modernization and openness. Dr. AlMalik reiterated ICESCO’s openness, as part of its new vision and strategic orientations, to cooperate with all stakeholders to serve humanity and contribute to overcoming global challenges in all aspects.

    For her part, Ms. Bokova thanked ICESCO Director-General for the invitation to participate in the work of the Conference to get deep insights into the cultural actions of ICESCO and its Member States and stressed her appreciation of the topics discussed during the Conference and the papers submitted by ICESCO General Directorate, which reflect ICESCO’s development and comprehensive future vision.

    ICESCO Director-General highlighted key initiatives, programs and projects implemented by ICESCO, in conjunction with the competent authorities in its Member States and in full coordination with the National Commissions for Education, Science and Culture, in the field of building youth’s capacities in technology and innovation, training in leadership for peace and security, supporting women, combatting girls’ school dropout, instilling the values of coexistence and civilizational dialogue as well as ICESCO’s efforts in valorizing and preserving heritage.

    ICESCO Director-General holds meetings with Ministers of Culture of Several Islamic World Countries

    Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), held a series of meetings with ministers of culture and heads of delegations from several Member States taking part in the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, which was organized by ICESCO and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented in its Ministry of Culture, on 25-26 September 2023, under the theme “Towards the Renewal of Cultural Action in the Islamic World.”

    During these meetings, Dr. AlMalik reaffirmed the Organization’s keenness to promote communication with the relevant authorities in its Member States, to take stock of their needs and priorities to devise suitable plans and programs, adding that ICESCO works to strengthen cooperation among its Member States in the cultural field.

    On their part, the ministers of culture and heads of delegations lauded the progress, modernization, and openness that ICESCO has embraced, commending its programs and projects aimed at empowering youth and women, training them in leadership for peace and security, capacity-building in innovation, entrepreneurship and modern technology. They also noted with appreciation the cultural strategies that the Organization seeks to implement in collaboration with its Member States, and its efforts to promote the heritage of Islamic world countries.

    The Meetings also discussed bilateral cooperation between ICESCO and the Member States and strengthening partnerships for cultural action renewal. During these meetings, Dr. AlMalik received the following officials: Ms. Haifa Najjar, Minister of Culture of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan; Mr. Moammar Al-Eryani, Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Yemen; Judge Mohammad Wissam Adnan El-Mortada, Minister of Culture of the Lebanese Republic; Mr. K. M. Khalid, Minister of Cultural Affairs of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh; Mr. Atef Abu Saif, Minister of Culture of the State of Palestine; and Mr. Ahmed Abdel-Rahman Mohamed Hassan Siwar Al Dahab, Ambassador of Sudan to the State of Qatar and head of the Sudanese delegation to the Conference.

    Additionally, Dr. Mohamed Zinelabidine, Head of the Sector of Culture and Communication at ICESCO, held a meeting with Mr. Hamat Bah, Minister of Tourism and Culture of the Republic of The Gambia, to discuss strengthening cooperation between ICESCO and The Gambia in various cultural fields.

    ICESCO Pays Tribute to Najib Rhiati and Ahmed Said Bah

    During the closing session of the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Culture, ICESCO honored Mr. Najib Rhiati, Cultural Advisor to ICESCO Director-General (DG), and Dr. Ahmed Said Bah, Advisor to the Director-General for Partnerships and International Cooperation and Supervisor of the General Secretariat of National Commissions and Conferences, in recognition and appreciation of their contributions during their tenure with the Organization.

    Each honoree received the ICESCO Honorary Shield and a Certificate of Appreciation from Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO (DG), Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Thani, the Minister of Culture of the State of Qatar, President of the Conference, and Dr. Hayat Qatat Al-Qarmazi, the Minister of Cultural Affairs of the Republic of Tunisia, the Conference Rapporteur.

    Dr. AlMalik underscored that the recognition is an expression of gratitude from the ICESCO General Directorate and all its staff for the outstanding contributions of Mr. Rhiati and Dr. Ahmed Said Bah over the past decades. He noted that their contributions will remain a landmark in the history of ICESCO and cultural action in the Islamic World.

    Mr. Najib Rhiati was honored for his dedicated and exemplary efforts over four decades, during which he oversaw several sectors and departments at ICESCO and eventually served as the Cultural Advisor to the ICESCO Director-General.

    Dr. Ahmed Said Bah was also honored for his tireless work within ICESCO, which began in the mid-1990s. During this time, he presided over and supervised numerous sectors and departments within the Organization, becoming a role model for enlightened leadership and dedicated work.

    ICESCO and Saudi Ministry of Culture sign executive program for Islamic World Cultural Index Project

    The Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO) and the Ministry of Culture in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia signed the Executive Program for the Islamic World Cultural Index Project. This Project aims to contribute to developing the cultural action system, monitoring all cultural quantitative and statistical data, and rendering it analyzable, assessable, and updatable. The Project is also geared towards monitoring the progress achieved by the Member States’ in adopting the cultural index, with a view to building a knowledge database that supports strategic planning for cooperation and benefiting from experiences and expertise in this field.

    The Executive Program was signed in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday 26 September 2023, concurrently with the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized by ICESCO and hosted by the State of Qatar represented in its Ministry of Culture.

    Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, signed the agreement on behalf of the Organization, while Mr. Rakan Ibrahim Al-Touq, Assistant Minister, signed on behalf of His Highness Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Al Saud, Minister of Culture of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, President of the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture, and Sciences.

    The Islamic World Cultural Index Project, being part of the memorandum of understanding signed between ICESCO and the Saudi Ministry of Culture in Riyadh in September 2022, will strengthen expertise and knowledge exchange between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the other ICESCO Member States. It will also support the cultural system of these countries by building the capacities of professionals and specialists working in the field of culture, as well as researchers in the field of cultural strategic planning.

    Moreover, the Program, to be implemented over an extendable period of three years, will support specialized studies in the field of cultural strategies, promote sustainable cultural development by elaborating mechanisms and training methods for cultural management, and invest in cultural diversity and pluralism.
    Prior to the signing, Dr. AlMalik and Mr. Al-Touq held a meeting where they reaffirmed their respective institutions’ keenness to sustain their outstanding partnership, stressing the great significance of the Executive Program for Islamic World Cultural Index project, given the central role of data in creating cultural strategies.

    ICESCO Director-General Meets a Host of Member States’ Culture Ministers

    Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, Director-General (DG) of the Islamic World Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), met a host of culture ministers of the Organization’s Member States following their participation in the 12th Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized by ICESCO, and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented by its Ministry of Culture, on 25-26 September 2023, with the rallying call “Towards the Renewal of Cultural Action in the Islamic World.”

    During these meetings, Dr. AlMalik underlined ICESCO’s support for its Member States in its areas of action, its keenness to achieve synergy towards renewing cultural action and its strategic vision of adopting culture as a beacon of sustainable development. He further stressed ICESCO’s valorization of the heritage of its Member States through its inscription on ICESCO’s Islamic World Heritage List and building the capacities of personnel working in the field.

    ICESCO Director-General highlighted the outcomes of ICESCO’s key programmes and initiatives in the Ministers’ respective countries and ways of fostering cooperation between ICESCO and their countries.

    ICESCO DG held separate meetings with Mr. Mohammad Mehdi Esmaili, Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Dr. Ahmed Fakkak Al-Badrani, Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities of the Republic of Iraq, Dr. André Jacques Augand, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports of the Republic of Gabon, Mr. Ahmed Ould Sid’Ahmed Die, Minister of Culture, Youth, Sports and Relations with the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mr. Jamal Shah, Minister for National Heritage and Culture of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and Dr. Farah Sheikh Abdulqadir, Minister of Education, Culture and Higher Education of the Federal Republic of Somalia.

    The Conference of Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World in Doha adopts several resolutions on its first day

    The 12th Conference of the Ministers of Culture in the Islamic World, organized, in Doha, by the Islamic World Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ICESCO), and hosted by the State of Qatar, represented by its Ministry of Culture, concluded its first day’s proceedings, which witnessed the composition of the Conference Bureau and the Islamic World Heritage Committee, the adoption of the Report of the 18th Meeting of the Consultative Council for Cultural Development in the Islamic World, as well as the documents presented by ICESCO General Directorate.

    The Conference’s working sessions began with the formation of the Conference Bureau with Qatar as its President, Senegal as the Vice-president, and Tunisia as the Rapporteur.

    The Conference adopted the Organization’s Achievements Report in the Cultural Field between the Two Sessions of the Conference, presented by Dr. Mohamed Zinelabidine, head of the Culture and Communication Sector at ICESCO, in which he highlighted the Organization’s efforts to contribute to the renewal of cultural action. He also noted the Organization’s proposal to add an eighteenth goal to the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and submit it to the United Nations General Assembly. Sheikh Abdulrahman bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Minister of Culture of Qatar, announced Doha’s endorsement of this proposal.

    Dr. Salim M. AlMalik, ICESCO Director-General, mentioned that during his meeting with Ms. Amina Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, in New York, he had presented this proposal, which she welcomed.

    Dr. Walid Alseif, Chairman of the Islamic World Heritage Committee, also presented a report on the Committee’s prominent efforts during its previous session.

    The Conference approved the new composition of the Islamic World Heritage Committee, the membership of which included the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Sultanate of Oman, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Morocco, the Republic of Burkina Faso, the Republic of Gabon, the Republic of Benin, the Republic of Senegal, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, and the Republic of Kazakhstan, as well as the State of Palestine, as a permanent member of the Committee, and the State of Qatar, as the conference president.

    Mr. Najib Rhiati, Cultural Advisor to ICESCO Director-General, presented a document outlining the mechanisms for developing ICESCO’s Programme for Culture Capitals in the Islamic World. The Document included a new approach to selecting the culture capitals. The Conference adopted this document, which included the names of cities scheduled to be celebrated in the coming years, namely Shusha in the Republic of Azerbaijan for 2024, Samarkand in the Republic of Uzbekistan for 2025, Al-Khalil in Palestine, Abidjan in the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire for 2026, Siwa in the Arab Republic of Egypt for 2027, and Lusail in the State of Qatar for 2030.

    Dr. Ghanem bin Mubarak Al-Ali, the Assistant Undersecretary for Cultural Affairs at the Qatari Ministry of Culture, reviewed the results of the meeting of the Consultative Council for Cultural Development in the Islamic World and a report on the activities performed in the celebration of Doha as the 2021 Culture Capital in the Islamic World, under the theme “A Story of Success and Excellence.”

    Dr. Nami Salhi, Director of the Islamic World Heritage Center at ICESCO, outlined the broad framework of the valorization of Living Human Treasures and traditional knowledge in the Islamic World program.

    Mr. Mohamed Hedi Shili, Director of the Legal Affairs Department at ICESCO, presented a draft strategic document to combat the illicit trafficking of cultural property in the Islamic World. Both documents were adopted.

    The head of the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia presented an initiative specific to Hajj’ Routes, in addition to a project on cultural indicators for the Islamic world countries. The Conference welcomed and approved both initiatives.

    The second working session of the Conference will involve the delivery of addresses by the heads of participating countries’ delegations to exchange insights and ideas on the importance of renewing cultural action in the Islamic world and the means and mechanisms to achieve this goal.

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