Sultan bin Salman and Faisal bin Mesh’al launch 5th Urban Heritage Forum in Al Qassim
aTP- Arab tourism portal- Prince Dr. Faisal bin Mesh’al bin Saud bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Al Qassim province, Chairman of Al Qassim Tourism Development Council, on Monday, November 30, 2015, declared open the 5th Urban Heritage Forum at King Khalid Cultural Center in Buraidah.
The opening ceremony was graced by presence of Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, President of SCTH, along with Prince Mesh’al bin Majed bin Abdul Aziz, Jeddah Mayor, and Chairman of Jeddah Tourism Development Council, Prince Faisal bin Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Al Madina province, Chairman of Al Madina Tourism Development Council, in addition to President of the Grand Mosque and Prophet Mosque Affairs, Sheikh Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Sedais, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, Eng. Abdul Lateef bin Abdul Malik Al Sheikh, besides a number of their officials of tourism and heritage from GCC and Arabic countries.
Upon their arrival at the ceremony venue, President of SCTH and Governor of Al Qassim, they first opened the accompanied exhibition of the Forum, which includes pavilions of a number of public authorities in addition to the pavilions of Provincial Tourism Development Councils, Centers and Associations concerned with Urban Heritage, besides venues for a number of heritage events.
President of SCTH and Governor of Al Qassim then toured the exhibition in accompanied by the guests of the forum.
The opening ceremony was commenced by the reading of the Holy Qur’an, before offering a film entitled “Back to the future”.
In his speech, President of SCTH delivered on the occasion said, “We should view the cultural heritage of our country, as a new economy that would create jobs and investment opportunities to citizens of different qualifications and educational levels and in different communities.”
The government has decided to create a solidarity between balanced tourism and heritage in order to make heritage accessible to citizens and the next generations to enable them to experience their homeland actually, instead of using it as mere a dwelling place.”
“In this blessed evening, I am very happy to be here in the beloved Al Qassim, the home of generosity, loyalty and great achievements. Good work has been done here and the forum has enjoyed distinguished organization. Al Qassim people used to be dedicated, honest and hard workers. Today we meet with the dearest Al Qassim and its people who had great role and unforgotten contributions in the building of this country as well as enhancing its unity, thanks be to Allah. Tonight we meet while we are living and sensing the great transformation supported by the State during the last few years for reviving the national heritage and enhancing its role in our life and economy,” added President of SCTH.
“The national heritage, which has for a long time been viewed as ‘a waste from the past’, and an evidence of backwardness, has now become the State’s top priority. What we see in Al Qassim today will be repeated as an example in each of the Kingdom’s provinces. This would have never been possible without God’s blessing, and persistent support of the leader of this State, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz in addition to the efforts of both the State and its citizens.”
President of SCTH in his speech commended the great support and patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (may Allah protect him) to the national heritage, adding, “I shall respectfully refer again to the great role played by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz for the conservation of the national heritage since his position as the Governor of Riyadh.
“I was personally part of this, for a long time, I have been watching him fighting for the preservation of the heritage in Riyadh province, as well as in different parts of the Kingdom, besides his tough stances against the plans and programs of erasing the national heritage and ruling it out from the development plans across the Kingdom.
“King Salman’s efforts in the preservation of national heritage can be touched now across these provinces which are representing concrete evidence to his early insight which stresses the importance of heritage as a key component to the future of this country. The great initiatives he had made in this respect have created a major tributary from which we derive our keenness and awareness on our heritage and history.”
President of SCTH in his speech also stressed the cultural and economic importance of national heritage, and added, “We are all very sure that the nation does not preserve its heritage and history will never attain a promising future. Our attention towards heritage has developed in view of its importance as the umbrella under which we all bask in the society that confirms to our national identity, besides it is playing as an economic source. It can contribute as it does in other civilized and economically advanced countries in achieving balanced development at the local and national level. It also can achieve unleash unlimited opportunity for jobs, production and investment for young people and families."
“The challenges that the heritage sector was facing in general and the urban heritage in particular, which we have touched for all these years, and which will be discuss in this session need persistent and concerted efforts from all of us.” Prince Sultan bin Salman said.
President of SCTH in his speech commended the efforts of the partners of SCTH in the service of heritage as well as in changing people’s views against it, saying “Today I would like to recognize the role of SCTH partners, who are many – municipalities, governorates, and different ministers- and appreciate their leading role in everything we do. The success, if any, is yours, and the future is yours, For the benefit of the citizens who stood firm behind the heritage, which has now been transformed into an economic resource for the welfare of many people, God willing. Every citizen or a person who looks at our heritage with contempt is considered as not belonging to this country. We look at our national heritage as a major component of our blessed state and young national unity. Our blessed unity has emerged from these heritage sites and have succeeded in bringing us together. These sites now call us to become sincere towards them and towards the people who had dwelled in them someday, fought and struggled for the foundation and unification of this blessed country.
“We should be loyal to our heritage, as we always used to do. We are recovering our history and all of us work to fight anybody who intends to destroy this history. Thank be to God, they are very few. We look forwards to the transformation of national heritage “from extinction to prosperity”. In everything we do, we are inspired by the words of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques on the caring for the national heritage. The King, a month ago, had approved the program of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for Caring of Kingdom’s Cultural Heritage with a budget not less than SR 5 billion, covering wide range of programs and projects that we are carrying out in collaboration with our partners and municipalities. For them we would like to seize this opportunity to extend our special thanks and appreciation and to the Minister Municipal and Rural Affairs, the good man that I have closely worked with for over 30 years, my generous brother, Abdul Lateef Al Sheikh, who is present here now.”
President of SCTH, in his speech referred to the important developments and transformations that the heritage has witnessed during the current year, such as changing the name of Saudi Commission for Tourism and Antiquities (SCTA) to the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTH), in addition to approving the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Program for Caring of Kingdom’s Cultural Heritage and allocating for it a special budget exceeding SR 5 billion for the next three years.
“This project does not only aim at enhancing the national identity, rather it aims at linking the economy with the heritage. In addition, it is a mega and leading project as it has been described by the Director-General of UNESCO, Her Excellency Irina Bokova in a previous speech. This project is unprecedented at the national or international levels. If we have worked hard during the past period to enhance the concept of cultural tourism nationally, as well as building a social base for accepting this idea, this leading cultural project will create upper and lower infrastructure that will make this idea possible and capable for application and making it a great economic value in our country, especially that our country was the home of successive civilizations. It is also a multipurpose project, concerning of the future of this great country. I would like here to remind you with the words of the Custodian: The future of this country should be based on our great history and heritage.”
“This project also aims at creating a national memory for the coming generations and enhance the national unity through vivid historic and heritage sites, not only through the narrated stories.”
“Patience, dedication and determination are the features of the people of this blessed country which stands lofty among the nations and, thanks be to Allah, it’s safe, stable and prosperous more than ever before.”
On the developments and achievements of heritage sector, President of SCTH added that, most important achievements in the heritage are, including the approval of regulation of antiquities, museums and urban heritage by the State as well as approving its related executive bylaws. “This regulation is the only of its type in the world, which agreed to combine the heritage and urban heritage in united regulation as this regulation inspires all the international leading experiences that we have reviewed throughout the past four years until its approval finally in collaboration with a number of public partners."
“The executive bylaws of the regulation are concluded, these were approved this morning in Al Qassim and they will be announced next Sunday.”
President of SCTH added that, the achievements also include the establishment of Heritage Hospitality Company “Nozol”, which works according to the “Heritage integration” concept, and will form an economic base to maintain balance between preservation of the heritage components and its employment economically. The achievements included establishment of Tourism Development and Investment Company, in addition to Tourism Projects Loaning Program, which was recently approved by the State and it will provide a great opportunity for enhancing tourism in general, especially the cultural tourism, which has gradually become in the limelight of the increased amount of concerned people across the world.
“Also there are a multiple loaning programs designed to support investment in small and medium enterprises in the areas of tourism and the heritage provided by the Saudi Credit and Saving Bank (SCSB), with which we work to increase the loans of development of heritage sites up to SR 50 million, in addition to the Agricultural Development Fund (ADF) funds the Agro tourism projects program (Aryaf) which is carried out by SCTH.”
“SCTH on the other hand has launched the Tourism Routes Initiatives (Mayfoul Makfoul), throughout different parts of the Kingdom. The initiative aims at employing heritage villages, natural sites and tourism potentials of each province as well as contributing to enhancing the correlations between tourism products, services and local economies.”
president of SCTH in his speech referred to the launch of Historic Mosques Caring Program by SCTH, stating, “SCTH has adopted this program because it represents one of the foundations of our religious and social culture. This program enjoys support of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdul Aziz. Just a several weeks ago we had signed a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Islamic Affairs to enhance the cooperation efforts in order to bring historic mosques to life.”
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“Tales of this country have emerged from the mosques to bring people together. Today, Al Qassim, as indicated by the latest statistics, has over 90 historic mosques some of them have been brought to life. We hope under the patronage of my brother Prince Faisal that the governor’s program for caring of historic mosques to be launched tomorrow and this is an open invitation to all of you, and that Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Sedais will moderate historic mosques.’ session.
President of SCTH in his speech said, “By a resolution of the State, SCTH has established the National Handicraft Program “Bari” which aims to transform handicraft into authentic Saudi developed products deriving its authenticity from the country’s history and culture. This program is integrated with the urban heritage and with heritage’s different tangible and intangible elements in order to build integrated economic industry based on our rich national heritage as well as supporting jobs and investment generation in the national heritage.”
