RIYADH: Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan Al-Saud has reaffirmed the Kingdom’s support for national, regional, and international efforts to develop innovative cultural policies integrated into public policies.

He was speaking while heading a high-level ministerial session on Thursday for regional consultations in preparation for the UNESCO World Conference on Cultural Policies — Mondiacult 2022.

The two-day meeting, held virtually and chaired by Saudi Arabia, was attended by UNESCO’s assistant director general for culture, Ernesto Ottone Ramirez, Arab culture ministers, and representatives of international and regional organizations.

Prince Badr expressed his appreciation for UNESCO’s efforts in preparing and coordinating the consultations, and thanked member states, regional, and international organizations and institutions for their contributions.

He said his country continued to stress the importance of enabling the recovery of the cultural sector and enhancing its role as a major driver of sustainable development.

The prince described the consultations as “fruitful” and said they sought to “build on previous efforts in the field of cultural policies, and to seize new opportunities to develop them from a global and cross-sectoral perspective to achieve the desired integration, strengthen the developmental roles of culture and harness them for the benefit of the global public.”

He pointed out that the priorities of the Arab region were to promote cultural diversity through the optimal application of digitization, create policies to protect cultural heritage and harness it for peace and cultural diplomacy, continue to develop the sector’s governance and infrastructure to support the creative economy, and enhance the active participation of youth as a main target in skill- and capacity-building plans for the development and growth of the sector.

The regional consultations, which kicked off on Wednesday, discussed five main priorities, including strengthening the role of the cultural sector as a major driver of advancement and sustainable development, responding to the opportunities and challenges of digitization and the promotion of cultural diversity, protecting and harnessing cultural heritage to serve society, inclusiveness, peace and cultural diplomacy, promoting the creative economy through governance and infrastructure development, supporting education, and training and capacity building in the cultural sector targeting youth engagement and employment.