What is Egypt’s Culture Min. plan to develop the General Authority for Cultural Palaces?

CAIRO – 26 November 2020: Egypt’s Minister of Culture Inas Abdel Dayem confirmed that the ministry is working at full capacity to open cultural palaces nationwide.

“We have to remember that the Ministry Of Culture has opened 45 sites during the past 3 years, and that is a good number,” said the minister in press statements.

“We always look at the closed sites, the sites that have been allocated but did not operate and wait for their budget,  the sites that have been closed to raise efficiency, and in the sites that have been closed for development, and currently in places such as cultural houses and cultural centers, they must be developed in line with the cultural movement that occurs,  and the movement of society as a whole.”

“For example, there must be halls for technology, cinemas, and various and varied activities for young people. The culture palaces are equipped to serve individuals with special needs, and is prepared with designated spaces and halls for writers, in addition to working to provide good cultural content that serves everyone.”

“It is impossible for 600 palaces to be developed simultaneously, but we promise that everything that is opened will be of the highest standard. This is what will happen in the Ismailia Culture Palace, which will be opened within days, in addition to completing the Wadi el-Natrun Culture Palace, the Sadat Cinema in Menoufia, and the Arish Culture Palace.”

“It is worth noting that we are going according to the budgets that are allocated to the ministry in certain percentages for places in need, and since I assumed responsibility for the ministry, I thought that we could not pressure the Ministry of Finance to provide greater allocations for the opening of sites, therefore, I collected the Ministry’s sectors before the end of the fiscal year to see what was left of the budget at the sector level. From here we collect it and work statistics on the faltering sectors and see the percentages needed to fix them.”

“For example, in the cultural palaces, two sites are about to be completed, but they need simple capabilities of up to 20 or 30% for the site to open, so we transfer the rest to them.”

“This is also what happened in theaters. We were able to open a large number of them including Lycée El-Horreya in Alexandria, Youth Theater, Al Taleea Theater, National Theater, Comedy Theater, Puppet Theater and the Floating Theater, and we are still completing the openings”, concluded Abdel Dayem.