Forum of China-Arabic Library Curators was held at the National Library of China on Oct 13. Ding Wei, the Vice Minister of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Ayed Al-Shawafy, cultural minister of the Republic of Yemen made a speech at the meeting. Curator representatives from China and more than 10 library representatives from countries in the Arab League attended the meeting.

This event, as a part of the Third Arabic Arts Festival，was sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and secretariat of the League of Arab States and co-organized by the National Library of China and the China Arts and Entertainment Group. Two sides agreed to strengthen ties between their libraries and released a communiqué.

Ding said that a library is a crucial part of public cultural undertakings. In recent years, Chinese libraries have become more active in foreign exchanges and cooperation. This event is of great significance in the wake of the 6th ministerial meeting of the China-Arab cooperation forum and the China-Arab Culture Ministers Forum. Ding added that culture exchanges and cooperation will play a leading role in the construction of “One Belt and One Road” (the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Marine Silk Road). This event will provide a platform for both sides to strengthen communication and build a long-term cooperation mechanism.

The communiqué puts forward that the two sides will carry out a long-term cooperation mechanism in library, information and document preservation, including holding a biennial experts conference on library, information and document preservation and setting up a professional training plan for experts from the libraries of Arabic countries and the secretariat of the League of Arab States.

This forum fills the gap between China and Arab library cooperation and paves the way for the China-Arab Library Information Experts Conference in 2015.

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