Mrs Mubarak reiterates importance of cultural building of individuals

Egypt's First Lady Suzanne Mubarak stressed on Thursday that the cultural building of individuals is one of Egypt's most important national projects.

In a lecture on the sidelines of the seventh Arab-European Book Fair, organised by the Arab World Institute in Paris, Mrs. Mubarak stressed that science and knowledge were the only ways for progress.

She referred to Egypt's experiment in setting up a national centre for child culture. Not only was the centre interested in the printed word but it also provided audio-visual means needed for progress, she said.

Mrs. Mubarak added that the Egyptian experiment contributed to boosting the publication of children's books, and develop TV programmes for children.

She lauded the institute's role in encouraging cultural dialogue between France and the Arab world. She said the institute provided good chances for French intellectuals to study the Arab civilization.

Mrs. Mubarak said culture is the only way to enhance dialogue among different peoples.

"As we in Egypt were looking forward to a better future, we began in the early 80s taking care of the culture of children to enable them to deal with the world around them," she said.

That's why we started setting up a national centre for children's culture. The centre depicted challenges facing the culture of children and provided solutions to them.

We also held the first fair of children's books. The fair groups all publishers of children's books every year in Cairo to establish means to update children's books.

"But the main challenge that faced us in Egypt was rebuilding the public libraries and this was not an easy task. Egypt has 26 governorates and more than 5.000 villages. So we could not depend on governmental institutions. We relied on cooperation between the state institutions and the non-governmental organizations. And we now have a national network for public libraries'', she said.