Under the auspices of President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the Ministry of Social Solidarity, in cooperation with the League of Arab States, organized the Arab Exhibition for Productive Families “Bayt Al-Arab” at Al-Qubba Palace in Cairo Governorate, during the period from January 5 to January 11, 2023, with the participation of 12 Arab countries.
The exhibition will feature the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as the guest of honour; Jordan is the head of the Executive Office of the Council of Arab Ministers of Social Affairs.
The number of productive families participating in the exhibition is about 150 productive families, distributed as follows: 70 Egyptian families, and 80 families from Arab countries.
The exhibition will be held on an area of 4,000 square meters in the presidential palace of Al-Qubba in Cairo until January 11, and the exhibition will open its doors free of charge to the public from 10 am to 10 pm at Gate No. (1) in the Al-Qubba Palace.
All information about the exhibition is available on the um-in.com website, the official website of the Ministry of Social Solidarity, and the accounts of the Ministry of Social Solidarity on social networking sites.
The Activities
The Opening
Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Abul Gheit and Minister of Social Solidarity Nivine El-Kabbag opened on Thursday 5/01/2023 the first Arab Exhibition for Productive Families “Bayt al-Arab”.
The opening witnessed the participation of Minister of Environment Yassmin Fouad, Minister of Culture Nivine El Kilani, Minister of Public Enterprises Mahmoud Essmat, Cairo Governor Khaled Abdel Aal, Assistant Arab League Secrtary General Haifa Abu Ghazala as well as social affairs ministers from Jordan, the Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Sudan, and Yemen, in addition to a high-level delegation from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and a delegation from the Sultanate of Oman and Somalia.
This is in addition to the participation of 11 Arab embassies representing the countries of “Saudi Arabia – UAE – Qatar – Kuwait – Lebanon – Djibouti – Morocco – Palestine – Yemen – Mauritania – Bahrain”, as well as permanent delegates to the League of Arab States, a number of artists, businessmen, representatives of international institutions, as well as members of the House of Representatives and the Senate, and the Coordination’s Committee of Party’s Youth Leaders and Politicians (CPYP).
In her speech, Minister of Social Solidarity Nivine El-Kabbag asserted Egypt’s keenness on hosting this exhibition to be a regional gathering for all creative producers and exhibitors willing to find an outstanding marketing opportunity.
She pointed out that Egypt’s organization of this fair is part of the State’s efforts to enhance the economic empowerment means and achieve the objectives of the UN for sustainable development 2030 especially those pertaining to empowering of women and breadwinners.
She described as an important opportunity to boost the sector of productive families, as well as Arab handicrafts and heritage industries.
She added that the exhibition will act as a good prospect for exchange of experiences between Arab countries in the field, to boost the exhibitors’ competitiveness in global markets.
The minister said that the products of the Egyptian productive families are part and parcel of Egyptian heritage and industry, pointing out that there are more than 400 centres for productive families in Egypt, with about 14,000 productive families as members.
Kabbag also conveyed the sincere greetings of Egypt’s first lady Mrs. Intisar El Sisi, to the attendees and her wishes for every success for the work of this current edition.
She explained that the Ministry organized this Fair to help low-income families increase their income, aiming to empower these families and transform them from dependent families into productive families that contribute to economic and social development, in accordance with the SDGs and Egypt’s Vision 2030, saying: “We are embracing green sustainable projects as one of our top priorities.”
At the end of her speech, the Minister of Social Solidarity sent a message to every Arab family with the need to participate in the wheel of production in order to advance our Arab societies, improve opportunities for a decent life, and write a bright and prosperous future for our Arab peoples commensurate with our ancient cultures and glorious history.
For his part, Ambassador Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, affirmed in his speech that the organization of the Arab Productive Families Exhibition is the Egyptian government’s continuation of development work and a special focus on the most vulnerable groups in society.
He pointed out that within the framework of the exhibition’s activities, several seminars will be organized to review the pioneering experiences in the Arab countries and direct more support to Arab families. He suggested setting up an Arab mechanism to train leading productive families, according to the requirements of the Arab market.
For her part, Dr. Hala Al-Saeed, Minister of Planning and Economic Development, stressed during her meeting with the participating exhibitors from the Arab productive families, the importance of encouraging this type of handmade products spreading the culture of entrepreneurship among young people, and providing the necessary training for those who have these talents to enhance their capabilities and help them master these rare arts, pointing out the importance of these exhibitions in promoting the products of youth projects and helping them open markets for them internally and externally, praising the wonderful organization of the exhibition and the diversity it witnessed in handicrafts, expressing her happiness at participating in the opening of the exhibition and seeing the innovative spirit of the participating youth with it .
Dr. Nevin Al-Kilani, Minister of Culture, during her participation in the inauguration of the activities of the Arab Exhibition for Productive Families “Bayt Al-Arab”, stressed the importance of handicraft exhibitions, which are considered one of the pillars of cultural industries, not only in Egypt, but all over the world.
She asserted the ministry’s keenness to support traditional crafts as a heritage that constitutes one of the pillars of the creative economy, one of the tributaries of cultural industries, and one of the sources of global national income.
On the sidelines of the exhibition
On the sidelines of the activities of the Arab Exhibition for Productive Families “House of Arabs”, Ms. Nevin Al-Qabbaj, Minister of Social Solidarity, and Ms. Wafa Saeed Bani Mustafa, Minister of Social Development of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, signed an appendix to the Memorandum of Understanding on joint cooperation in the field of social affairs concluded between the Government of the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on July 27, 2017.
Seminar on “Marketing the Products of Productive Families”
Minister of Social Solidarity Nivine El-Kabbag attended the seminar on “Marketing the Products of Productive Families”, which was held on the sidelines of the activities of the Arab Exhibition for Productive Families “Bayt Al-Arab”, in the presence of Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, and Ms. Wafa Saeed Bani Mustafa, Minister of Social Development of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
The seminar was moderated by Minister Plenipotentiary Tariq Al-Nabulsi, Director of the Social Policy Development Department of the League of Arab States, reviewing the experiences of a number of Arab countries to empower productive families within the framework of exchanging experiences and reviewing different models.
The Minister of Social Solidarity expressed her happiness that the Ministry of Social Solidarity organized this event in coordination and cooperation with the League of Arab States to exchange experiences in all aspects of life, especially economic and social, as a marketing opportunity will be given to the products of productive families regionally and globally.
She stated that the Ministry of Social Solidarity has adopted productive families since 1964 to take care of low-income families and transform them from families that receive aid into productive families that contribute to economic and social development.
She stated that the number of beneficiaries from all the interventions of the Productive Families Project from 1964 to 2022 has reached about 731 thousand families, equivalent to about 2.9 million beneficiaries.
She highlighted that the Ministry of Social Solidarity is also keen to provide funding for productive families, noting that the ministry provided soft loans to establish small and micro projects for women and productive families, where the capital of soft loans amounted to nearly 3 billion pounds, benefiting more than 400 thousand projects, 68% of which are concentrated in rural areas, and women represent about 80% of the owners those projects.
She explained that the Ministry of Social Solidarity is working to establish an e-marketing platform to open a new mechanism for marketing handicraft products to productive families, and to ensure better opportunities to display products throughout the year instead of being restricted to specific dates or places.
For her part, Ambassador Haifa Abu Ghazaleh, Assistant Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, confirmed that the opening of the Arab House exhibition came as a confirmation of the priorities of the League of Arab States’ interest in eliminating multidimensional poverty and supporting productive families in marketing.
The Seminar also witnessed the review of a number of experiences of productive families in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the State of Palestine and Qatar.
Source: State Information Service Egypt
