Mr. Jumaa al-Qubaisi, Deputy Director-General of the National Library, Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) in the United Arab Emirates, accompanied by Dr. Ali Bin Tamim, KALIMA Project Manager, will visit Korea from May 3 to 8, 2010 by invitation of the Korea Foundation.

ADACH is the institution in charge of establishing and planning the cultural heritage policy of Abu Dhabi, and implementing related projects. One of its main ives is encouraging research on cultural heritage in the UAE as well as the Arabic world, also promoting many kinds of activities in the fields of intellectual, artistic and scientific development of the Abu Dhabi National Library. 

Mr. Alqubaisi is in charge of the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair (ADIBF) to be held in 2011, so he is scheduled to meet with persons in Korea from the international exposition related organizations in order to encourage as many as publishers as possible to participate in the ADIBF. In addition to this, his visit is aimed at having valuable discussion on their ‘KALIMAT project’ that translates and publishes foreign books into the Arabic language or vice versa.

Aside from these appointments, he will visit the he National Digital Library, operated by National Library of Korea, and Paju Book City, and he will be experiencing various cultural and arts venues. His visit will help contribute to greater awareness of Korean culture and art in Arabic countries, and it is expected to be more meaningful in view of the fact that the UAE will be represented at the 16th Seoul International Book Fair 2010 next month for the first time.