UAE to grace next Urban Heritage Forum in Riyadh

An urban heritage official praising the government's efforts for preserving the Saudi urban heritage by restoring rare sites in city-downtowns.

RIYADH: Riyadh will host the sixth edition of the National Urban Heritage Forum (NUHF) under the patronage of Gov. Prince Faisal bin Bandar, who is chairman of the Riyadh Tourism Development Council. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will be a guest of honor country at the forum.

The heritage forum is organized by the Saudi Commission for Tourism and National Heritage (SCTNH) in one of the provinces every year in collaboration with the governorates, municipalities and local universities.
“The SCTNH is preparing to organize the sixth NUHF in April next year in Riyadh with the UAE as a guest of honor country,” an SCTNH official said on Saturday.
He revealed that the upcoming forum will include workshops for business persons under national and international experts and advisers in order to brief them on investment opportunities in urban heritage sites and their economic and cultural feasibility. To take advantage of international and regional experiences, the UAE will be the guest of honor country, he added.
The organizing committee has began communicating with major corporations and organizations to inform them about the investment climate of urban heritage sites, as well as push them to participate in building this important and promising economic sector.
Earlier, Meshari bin Abdullah Al-Naeem, general superintendent of the National Urban Heritage Center and the chief of the organizing committee of the forum said, “the sixth forum will be held in an advanced style different from the previous forums by focusing on building and establishing integrated economic sectors of urban heritage.”
“This time the forum will focus on linking architectural aspects with an economic model to ensure the realization of the SCTNH vision toward development of the tourism sector, especially in the urban heritage sector,” he added.
The organizing committee of the forum this year has started preparations for the forum in a different module, so that the relevant heritage economic sectors in urban areas are classified under four sectors: construction, restoration and contracting, urban heritage sites operation, urban heritage human resources development, and finally urban heritage related industries and services, according to which the forum will be organized.
Notably, the NUHF is organized annually as per the recommendations of the first International Conference for Urban Heritage in the Islamic Countries, which was organized by the SCTNH in collaboration with a number of authorities in Riyadh in 2010.
The first session of the NUHF was organized in Makkah Province; the second was held in the Eastern Province; the third session was held in Madinah Province; the fourth in Asir Province and the fifth session was held in Al-Qassim Province.