She lauded the Ministry of Culture constantly modernizing and developing programmes and infrastructure for culture to contribute to social and economic development-thus projecting Manama as Capital of Arab Culture.
She made the remarks as she opened the regional conference tiled “Prehistory and Dawning Civilisations in the Arab Region”.
The event, scheduled to run until May2, is being organised by the Ministry of Culture at the Regency Hotel as part of festivities marking Manama as Capital of Arab Culture.
HRH Princess Sabeeka stressed the need to exchange data and ideas and benefit from experiences with expertise powerhouses and specialists in the fields of heritage and culture to preserve Bahrain’s identity.
She highlighted Bahrain’s contribution to world civilizations, stressing its highly-strategic location at the crossroads linking Asia to other continents in the world.
She expressed the hope that the festivities marking Manama as Capital of Arab Culture would contribute to promoting Bahrain’s positive image and its intellectual and cultural momentum.
Culture Minister Dr. Shaikha Mai bint Mohammed Al-Khalifa addressed the conference, stressing Bahrain’s efforts over than more than half a century to promote archaeological search, excavations and documentation of vestiges dating back to millennia-old civilizations-such Delmon and Tylos and even older civilizations which left archaeological remains, including prehistoric Djebel Dukhan.
Dr. Shaikha Mai stressed the drive of the department of antiquities to document and exhibit archaeological artefacts at the Bahrain National Museum and Bahrain Fort Museum, thus reflecting successive civilizations.
Dr. Shaikha Mai reaffirmed Bahrain’s commitment to contribute to the implementation of the World Heritage covenants- citing in this regard the establishment of the Regional Arab Centre for World Heritage. The enterprise will assist Arab countries in protecting World heritage sites, updating preliminary lists and register them on the World List of Heritage Sites. A film titled “Le Grand Voyage”, the brainchild of French author and Journalist Patrick de Carlos, was shown as part of the opening ceremony.