British Council Director: Syrian- British cultural relations flourishing
Syria-UK, Culture, 9/17/2001

There is a wide and growing interest both in Syria and Britain to promote their cultural cooperation relations. And the British Council in Damascus seems to provide excellence in its cultural activities conducted in Syria.

The British Council's main office is in Damascus was opened in the late 1940's. In June 1997 a small office was opened in Aleppo, in a joint venture with the commercial section of the British Embassy in Damascus.

The British Council in Damascus maintains good relations with the education, health and cultural sectors through which it promotes the English Language, British education, training and the arts.

Highlighting current activities of the British Council in Damascus, the Council's Director and Cultural Attache Patrick Brazier told the Arabic News that the British Council in Damascus has been successful for the four past years, noting that there is now a good opportunity to reassess and to change because Syria is also changing for the better.

He added:" I think that the British Council and Britain can have an important role as partners with Syria for the changes that Syria is planning to make." He continued:" For me, the most important element is partnership, and for a partnership to work both sides must learn and obtain benefit. So I have no fixed plans for changes yet, because it is too early. First we must listen and learn about the issues of concern to our partners in Syria and then plan our activities to focus on those issues."

Brazier, who is the new Director for the British Council in Damascus said that the British Council's main policies will not be changed. We will continue a major focus on education and we are particularly interested in developing links with British universities to help establish private universities in Syria. We are also interested in the whole area of business education. "

Brazier explained that in October this year the British Council will be running a seminar with some European colleagues on developments in business education in Europe, in collaboration with the Syrian Ministry of Higher Education. He commented that this will give the opportunity for people here in Syria to learn from the experience of business education not only in Britain but in other European countries as well.

Among other activities to be conducted by the British Council, Brazier noted that at the beginning of October:" we are organizing a fashion show at the Damascus al-Azem Palace, which will show the best of British fashion students' new designs. He added that this event is part of the British Council's wish to demonstrate a younger more dynamic image of Britain, rather than the old fashioned historical image.

He hinted that also over the next year, particularly in our work in arts and culture, we will be aiming at young audiences and activity showing modern Britain.

He elaborated that the fashion show is about modern design and that British design is at the forefront of changes in world design, citing the example that three quarters of the computer games manufactured in Japan and America are actually designed in the UK.

Previous Stories:
  Renowned British writers returned back to Syria in a fever of expectation   (3/23/2001)
  Syrian- British active Cultural co-operation   (2/2/2001)
  Six British artists display in Damascus for the first time in 40 years   (11/8/2000)

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