Saudi Minister of Culture and Information delivers speech in 8th

Rabat, January 27, SPA --Saudi Minister of Culture and Information
Iyad bin Amin Madani stressed that the Islamic Information ministers
are urged today to strengthen their joint cooperation in developing
the Islamic media products and improving its performance to serve the
issues of the Islamic Ummah (nation).

In a speech delivered at the opening of the 8th session of the
Islamic Information Ministers Conference, which started its
deliberations here earlier today, Madani called for working hard in
order to reflect the joint information projects on the ground and
keep pace with the technological and information development at the
international level.

Madani called for accrediting the speech addressed to the conference
by King Mohammed VI of Morocco as an official document of the
conference.

Minister of Culture and Information recalled the decisions of the
7th session of the Conference held in Jeddah during 2006, especially
the decision of preparing two studies related to the restructuring of
the Islamic News Agency (INA) and the Islamic States Broadcasting
Union ( ISBU) to upgrade and develop their performance.

He pointed out that these two studies allocated an estimated
budget for financing of INA and ISBU, calling on member states to
start paying their shares in that budget.

On another issue, Madani condemned the brutal Israeli
aggression against the unarmed Palestinian people in the besieged
Gaza Strip, stressing that the Organization of Islamic Conference
(OIC), will spare no effort to defend the just Palestinian cause,
hailing the efforts and initiatives undertaken by Al-Quds Al-Sharif
Treasury Agency to provide support for and assistance to
Palestinians.

The next session of the Islamic Information Ministers Conference
will be held in Gabon in 2011, Madani announced.

For his part and in a key address, Secretary General of the OIC Prof.
Ekmeleddin Ihsan Oglu stressed that the 8th session of the Islamic
Conference of Information Ministers gains particular importance in
light of the unprecedented revolution in the areas of communications
and media, as well as the major challenges facing the Islamic
countries in their march of progress.

He added that the 7th session of the Conference, which took place in
Saudi Arabia in 2006, had manifested many of the aspirations of the
Information Ministers inspired by the political commitments announced
by the leaders of the Islamic Ummah during the third extraordinary
summit held in Makkah in 2005.

Oglo pointed out that the process of restructuring the Islamic News
Agency (INA) reached its final stage and that the agency will be
launched in a new dress during the coming weeks, lauding the personal
support and interest paid to this project by the Saudi Minister of
Culture and Information Iyad bin Amin Madani who is the President of
Board of Directors of INA.

On other hand, Moroccan Minister of Communications and government
spokesman Khalid Al-Nasseri was elected as President of the 8th
session of the Islamic Conference of Information Ministers,
Palestine, Indonesia and Gabon as Vice-President and the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia as the Conference's Rapporteur.

--SPA