Egypt will cooperate with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to build the largest digital library in the world, Egypt’s Ministry of Education said on Saturday.
The three countries announced their alliance to build the digital library during the Knowledge Summit 2018 held in Dubai from December 5-6 under the theme “Youth and the Future of the Knowledge Economy”, said Ahmed Saber, the ministry’s media advisor.
Education Minister Tarek Shawky said that this library includes the launch of a digital platform to link the Egyptian Knowledge Bank, the Dubai Digital Library and the Saudi Digital Library in order to provide information resources and services to serve students and researchers.
He explained that the establishment of an Arab union of the digital libraries is a long-awaited dream in the Arab world, aiming to raise the level of digital Arabic content and allow the sources of the Egyptian Knowledge Bank to open to everyone everywhere.
The expected cooperation also includes exploring ways for the three countries to participate in the new Egyptian education system, Shawky stressed.
The Knowledge Summit 2018 brought together more than 100 high-level experts, decision-makers and practitioners from around the world in more than 45 discussion panels on various topics related to youth, the knowledge economy and ways to transform communities from consumers to knowledge producers.
The presidency launched the Egyptian Knowledge Bank project in 2015 as part of an initiative dubbed “Toward an Egyptian community that learns, thinks, and innovates”, which had been announced by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in December 2014.
The president’s media office had previously announced that the Education and Scientific Research Council signed agreements with 26 international publishing houses as part of the Egyptian Knowledge Bank project, making it the largest digital library in the world.
The publishing houses included Springer Nature, National Geographic, Discovery, Elsevier, Cambridge, Oxford and Reuters, among others. The library covers all areas of knowledge and educational curricula, the media office previously announced in a statement.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
