The National Archives inaugurates the Portal of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive and unveils the logo of the IAC Congress 2020
The National Archives inaugurates the Portal of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive and unveils the logo of the IAC Congress 2020
The National Archives, in conjunction with the Year of Tolerance, launched the IAC Congress 2020, which will be held in Abu Dhabi next year and it also launched the Portal of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive at the gala dinner held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the presence of a large number of members of the International Council on Archives and heads of National Archives of the world.
The ceremony was inaugurated by His Excellency Hamad Bin Abdulrahman Al-Midfa, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the UAE National Archives. He welcomed the participants of the meetings of the Executive Board of the International Council on Archives, the Forum of National Archivists of the World and all the guests, officials and media people. He pointed out the importance of these meetings being held in the UAE and their results and impact on the promotion of tolerance, which the founding leader Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan has instilled in the hearts of the people of the UAE and has always been the policy of our wise leadership. Now the UAE has become a model of tolerance in the world.
His Excellency conveyed thanks and appreciation to the wise leadership of the UAE for their great support to the National Archives for organizing these international meetings and their success. He offered special thanks and appreciation to His Highness Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan for his meticulous follow-up of these important archival forums and for the attention he paid to all projects of the National Archives.
In his speech, he stressed the importance of the portal of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive, pointing out that this portal will make a quantum leap in providing the archive of the region electronically and he thanked the National Archives of the United Kingdom for its cooperation in establishing the pioneering electronic resource for historical information pertaining to the Arabian Gulf region, which will act as an important source to decision-makers, students, researchers and scholars.
His Excellency expressed his pleasure for releasing the logo of the ICA Congress 2020, which will be held in Abu Dhabi in November next year, and pointed out that the logo reflects the past and guides to the future.
His Excellency Jeff James, Chief Executive Officer of the National Archives of the UK, delivered a speech in which he praised the cooperation with the UAE National Archives and considered the provision of half a million documents about the history of the UAE and the Gulf region on one portal as a great accomplishment for culture and knowledge that allows the world to learn about the important stages of the history of the UAE and the region.
His speech was followed by a documentary film about the stages of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive.
His Excellency Dr. David Fricker, President of the International Council on Archives delivered his speech in which he said that making the future relies on understanding the past. Therefore, the IAC Congress 2020 will promote the preservation of the documentary holdings of the generations. It will address many important issues that highlight the importance of preserving documented information in the Digital Open Space Era, His Excellency thanked the UAE National Archives for the warm welcome he and all the guests have received and the excellent organization of the meetings.
The portal of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive was launched and the logo of the IAC Congress 2020 was released in a festive atmosphere that impressed the audience. The ceremony ended with a reminder of the date of the biggest ceremony of the IAC Congress in November 2020.
The meetings of the Forum of National Archivists in Abu Dhabi will continue until May 2, 2019.
