Egypt and Korea signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on cultural heritage exchanges and cooperation, Korean Embassy in Cairo announced on Monday.
On the heels of Korean President Moon Jae-in's recent visit to Egypt, the Korean Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) and the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA) signed the MOU at the Manial Palace on January 21.
The MOU stipulates future plans to cooperate in all areas of cultural heritage; conducting archaeological excavation and restoration (including underwater archaeology).
It also aims at fighting against the illicit trade of cultural properties, supporting the application of digital technology, official development assistance (ODA) projects, cooperation in inscribing new UNESCO World Heritage sites, and exchange of academic, human, and material resources.
In this sense, Secretary-General Mostafa Waziri and Administrator Kim Hyun-mo had a meeting a day before the signing ceremony at the Karnak Temple in Luxor where they discussed how to strengthen cooperation in the area of cultural heritage between the two countries.
They addressed applying Korea's outstanding conservation and restoration technology to restore the "Ramesseum Temple", a World Heritage Site and platform for the collection of Egypt's six important museums and research institutes like the Egyptian Museum, Coptic Museum, Archaeological Research Centre, etc.
On his part, Korean Ambassador Hong Jin-wook expressed his massive happiness with the organizations’ hard work, asserting that the Korean Embassy’s continuous support has come to fruition with the first-ever MOU in this field.
Moreover, Hong affirmed that he would like to convey his deepest appreciation to the Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled El-Anany, the former Antiquities Minister and renowned Egyptologist Zahi Hawass and Waziri for putting their hands together.
The ambassador also stressed that Egypt, the cradle of civilization, is one of the Koreans’ favorite bucket list destinations. He mentioned that cultural heritage is a very promising area that can persify two countries’ cooperation and enhance people-to-people mutual understanding to make their solid friendship sustainable.
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