Dubai Customs organizes its 4th Annual Book Fair
The 4th edition of the book fair kicked off on Sunday January 27, 2013 at Dubai Customs. Under the theme "Dubai Customs Reads", the fair will run till January 31 with the participation of several publishing houses, local bookshops and the Saudi Cultural Attaché office in the UAE.
H.E Ahmed Butti Ahmed, the Executive Chairman of the Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Director General of Dubai Customs, inaugurated the book fair, in the presence of Dr Saleh bin Fahed, the Saudi Cultural Attaché in the UAE.
In the inauguration ceremony, H.E the Director General of Dubai Customs and the guests toured the fair and browsed the latest publications in all fields released by participating publishing houses.
In cooperation with Dubai Media Incorporated, a documentary was played in the first day of the fair that shed light on how Dubai evolved over the years, striking record figures in various fields, in addition to the city’s previous achievements. It also highlighted the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai, to make Dubai one of the leading cities worldwide by excelling in all fields. The documentary showed many sides of H.H Sheikh Mohammed’s personality, as a loving father, a first-class athlete, a horse-rider and an inspiring leader to the world economy.
A training course on sign language is carried out in cooperation with the Saudi Cultural Attaché office in the UAE for the purposes of educating Dubai Customs employees about the appropriate ways of interacting with deaf and mute people and teaching them the communication skills and common vocabularies needed to deal with people with special needs. The course runs for three days.
Ms Nadia Abdullah Kamali, the (Acting) Executive Director of Human Resources, Finance and Administration Division, explained that the "Dubai Customs Reads" fair is witnessing a quality leap in its contents, as it has a thousand exhibits in economy, religion, sociology, intellectualism, novels, law, arts, children books and customs work-related books. The book fair contributes to building a culture of reading, as Dubai Customs strives to promote this culture among its employees and customers, boost awareness in the society and call for people to think of books as their best friends of all times. By organizing this event, Dubai Customs also seeks to develop a taste for literature in readers and incite them to learn about the latest developments in PC software and scientific and culture progression, allowing publishers and bookshop owners to showcase their latest books and scientific researches to the public.
Moreover, Dubai Customs encourages everyone to own books and establish their own home library.
Ms Kamali mentioned that the book fair is organized by the Self-Development Centre and is one of the development initiatives at Dubai Customs. It is the first-of-its-kind in customs departments in the country, displaying books, periodicals, tapes and audio/visual CDs in various fields, namely law, customs affairs, trade, environment, science, covenants and international agreements. The centre strives to meet the reading needs of the Department’s employees and customers. In addition, the fair has a children corner which contains story books, other publications and educational toys suitable for young ages.
The book fair is an annual event that comes in line with the strategy of the Self-Development Centre, aiming at encouraging employees to read, stay up-to-date with current changes in the economic and world customs scopes, and eventually turn these changes into achievements.
Emirate: Dubai
Date: Jan 29, 2013
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