The UAE is working to grow its cultural and creative industries as it seeks to diversify its economy, Noura Al Kaabi, Minister of Culture and Youth, told Unesco's Mondiacult 2022 conference in Mexico.
Ms Al Kaabi participated in the largest global conference devoted to culture, which took place from September 28 to 30, via video conference.
At a session on the future of the creative economy on September 29, Ms Al Kaabi spoke extensively about the growing importance of the creative economy in a post-pandemic world. She shed light on how the UAE was leveraging the cultural and creative industries to diversify its economy.
“The UAE has recognised the growing power of the cultural and creative industries (CCI) within the wider economy, as well as its vulnerability to unpredictable events,” she said.
“The CCI contributes 3.5 per cent to the UAE’s GDP and is projected to grow to 5 per cent by 2031.
"We moved quickly to adapt our strategy and policy work in this area both on a federal and local level.
"The UAE Culture Agenda 2031 was launched in 2018, as the first nationwide strategy unifying the efforts of the national culture sector."
She said the Covid-19 pandemic was detrimental to the sector, but the UAE was quick to adapt to the situation by appropriate policy intervention.
“We launched the National Creative Relief Fund to mitigate the pandemic’s financial impact by offering relief packages to creative practitioners and SMEs," Ms Al Kaabi said.
"Our cultural operators stepped in to provide economic catalysts, digital activations, and free access to knowledge and content to sustain the creative spirit.
"We also boosted the Golden Visa Scheme to sustain the livelihoods of creative practitioners in the UAE.”
Speaking about strengthening and streamlining the creative economy, she talked about the creative UAE strategy and the framework for culture and arts education presented by the UAE at the 211th session of the executive board of Unesco.
“In 2021, the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, we launched a 10-year National Strategy for the Cultural and Creative Industries, which aims to foster a robust creative ecosystem within the national economy," she said.
"Globally, we were driven to present two resolutions to UNESCO’s Executive Board, one focusing on Culture and Arts Education, and the other on Consolidating Action for the Creative Economy.
“The UAE will continue to develop future-forward policy support, and appropriate funding mechanisms to sustain the CCI sector through institutional collaboration and interdisciplinary knowledge.”
She ended the session by calling on all stakeholders to jointly resolve to design policy and partnerships based on a spirit of collaboration and openness, one that can lift the communities in the present and the future.
A delegation headed by Salem Al Qasimi, permanent delegate of the UAE to Unesco, represented the country at the conference.
The international conference hosted a number of events to mobilise cultural policies to tackle global challenges for a more robust and resilient cultural sector.
Ebtesam Saif Alzaabi, international organisations expert at the United Arab Emirates National Commission for Education, Culture and Science, represented the UAE at a panel discussion titled Libraries Accelerating Education-Culture Linkages: Partnering to Empower the Cultural Sector.
She spoke about the UAE’s network of libraries and how it was a key contributor to building a knowledge-based economy.
Dubai's Al Quoz creative district - in pictures
The National Archives, Abu Dhabi
Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.
Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Jetour T1 specs
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The biog
Favourite book: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Favourite holiday destination: Spain
Favourite film: Bohemian Rhapsody
Favourite place to visit in the UAE: The beach or Satwa
Children: Stepdaughter Tyler 27, daughter Quito 22 and son Dali 19
Crops that could be introduced to the UAE
1: Quinoa
2. Bathua
3. Amaranth
4. Pearl and finger millet
5. Sorghum
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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Directed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring Kangana Ranaut, Richa Chadha, Jassie Gill, Yagya Bhasin, Neena Gupta
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Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
Profile
Company name: Marefa Digital
Based: Dubai Multi Commodities Centre
Number of employees: seven
Sector: e-learning
Funding stage: Pre-seed funding of Dh1.5m in 2017 and an initial seed round of Dh2m in 2019
Investors: Friends and family
From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Vacancy Rate 5.4%
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