Iraq: Making easier visa procedures for Arab and Foreigner artists

INA - BAGHDAD

Ministry of Culture confirmed on Saturday, the work to facilitate the procedures for granting visas to Arab and foreign intellectuals and artists, while revealing a tendency to establish Arab cultural weeks in Baghdad.

“The Ministry of Culture has opened horizons for cooperation with official and non-official bodies of civil society institutions and organizations in order to support cultural and artistic realities and it supports opening horizons of cooperation with Arab artists,” said the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, Imad Jassim, to the Iraqi News Agency (INA).

He explained, "Within this framework, we started with the plans and established a department in the ministry for development, as we are on the cusp of a bright period in cooperation with many parties, including expatriate artists and Arab as well as commercial institutions,”

"The ministry has made cooperations with a number of tourist institutions, including the Sinbad Land Foundation, which has a large festival in which a large number of intellectuals participate," he noted, adding that "the ministry is working to facilitate the mechanisms of procedures for granting visas to Arab and foreign artists to participate in events in Iraq,”

He concluded by saying, "We had an important visit to the Dubai Expo and met a number of intellectuals, as well as a visit to Saudi Arabia for Riyadh Book Fair recently, during which we found a great welcome that we will translate through Arab cultural weeks in Baghdad,”

“The ministry has been suffering from some problems for a long time with regard to the financial budgets that support festivals, but it insists that the coming years will be full of continuous giving between Arab and even Western countries with the Iraqi culture,” he added.