Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, and Dr. Ahmed Fouad Heno, Minister of Culture, witnessed the signing ceremony of a cooperation protocol between the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and the General Authority for National Library and Archives regarding making available selected books of the General Authority for National Library and Archives that have been digitized on the Egypt Digital Heritage Portal.
The protocol was signed by Eng. Raafat Hendi, Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology for Developing Technological Infrastructure and Digital Transformation, and Dr. Osama Talaat, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Authority for National Library and Archives and Acting Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Culture.
According to this protocol, about 11,300 digital copies of a selected group of books of the General Authority for National Library and Archives will be made available through the Egypt Digital Heritage Portal, which have been digitized and prepared by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology according to the technological standard criteria of the portal project, taking into account the intellectual property rights of these works.
In his speech; Dr. Amr Talaat, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, confirmed that cooperation between the Ministries of Communications and Information Technology and Culture is witnessing continuous growth in light of the ongoing communication between the two ministries and the agreement on the importance of using modern technologies in spreading culture in its various forms among citizens. Dr. Amr Talaat added that the protocol aims to cooperate in making the cultural content of the General Authority of the National Library and Archives available on the Egypt Digital Heritage Portal, which the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is preparing to launch with the aim of enriching Egyptian heritage content and sustaining Egypt’s cultural leadership, which contributes to strengthening Egypt’s soft power. For his part, the Minister of Culture, Dr. Ahmed Fouad Hano, confirmed that the cooperation protocol signed between the two ministries is the first building block towards fruitful cooperation in the fields of digitization, documentation and training, and that the Ministry of Culture will do its utmost to make the cultural product available to all, which contributes to building the Egyptian person. He pointed out that the coming period will witness a qualitative development in the platforms that provide cultural and artistic content, as work will be done with the Ministry of Communications to make the works of great writers available at reduced prices digitally, and to provide multiple electronic platforms for Egyptian talents to present and discover their talents.
The duration of the protocol is 3 years, and the scope of its work includes reviewing the metadata in Arabic and English for about 11,300 books from the General Authority for the National Library and Archives, which were digitized by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for the benefit of the Authority, and determining their eligibility to be made available through the Egypt Digital Heritage Portal, taking into account the intellectual property rights on these holdings.
Following the signing of the protocol, the two ministers held an expanded meeting with the leaders of the two ministries to follow up on the executive steps of the areas of cooperation, and the latest developments in digitizing the content owned by the ministry’s sectors, including the National Library and Archives, the Egyptian General Book Authority, the Opera House, the Academy of Arts, and the Fine Arts Sector, in preparation for launching it on the Egypt Digital Heritage Portal and making it available to the public.
The initial vision of the “Digital Culture Palace” model was also reviewed, as well as the materials and services it provides that suit new generations of youth and creators, in addition to studying the possibility of presenting cultural and creative events within the Digital Egypt Creativity Centers owned by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in Cairo, Giza and the rest of the Egyptian governorates, with the participation of the Ministry of Culture sectors. The meeting discussed ways to document the rich heritage of the Egyptian Opera House and works of visual arts, establish virtual museums, use artificial intelligence in translation, create electronic platforms to market books and convert them into audio books, cooperate in the institutional development of the Ministry of Culture and train workers in the cultural field, hold cultural and artistic events, and create platforms to market and promote heritage products.
