Business & Money | Tuesday 8 January, 2019 7:05 am |

The two-day Saudi Salam (Peace) Forum concluded on Monday with a reminder of the importance of peaceful coexistence and communication between people of all nations and faiths.
The event, which was organized by the Salam for Cultural Communication project and took place at the conference center of the Saudi Press Agency in Riyadh, aimed to encourage stronger ties between the Kingdom and the global community. Speakers and guests included Faisal bin Abdulrahman bin Muaammar, the general supervisor of the forum, along with ambassadors, diplomats and experts.
Addressing a session titled “Peace Stories,” Bin Muaammar said the project’s title closely reflects the values on which Saudi Arabia was founded. Peace is a great Islamic value that promotes security, love, serenity and tranquility and ensures that security prevails, he added.
“The Salam for Cultural Communication project reflects the achievements and successes of the development journey, led by King Salman and managed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to achieve Vision 2030, which focuses on promoting coexistence and cultural communication between different peoples and communities,” said Bin Muaammar, who was the founding secretary-general of the King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna, and the King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue in Riyadh
The session also featured Saudi, Arab and international participants who shared stories from their lives highlighting the importance of peaceful coexistence in Saudi Arabia and beyond. They included Brazilian footballer Elton Jose Xavier Gomes, who plays for Saudi club Al-Qadsiah. has lived in the Kingdom for 10 years and set up a football academy in Brazil called Al-Saudiya; Saudi-born American filmmaker Todd Albert Nims; Arab youth ambassador to the United Nations Youth Assembly Razan Al-Aqeel; Japanese golfer Ryo Ishikawa; Mexican ceramicist Gustavo Perez; Saudi traveler Saud Al-Eidi; Saudi volunteering expert Shams Al-Sabi, and former rapper-turned-motivational speaker Mutah Beale.
Bin Muaammar also toured the forum’s art exhibition featuring works created by Saudi artists and photographers to convey a message of peace to the world. The contributors included award-winning photographer Najla Al-Khalifa and young photographer Muteb Al-Hudaif, and artists Abdul Aziz Al-Dabal, Majih Al-Shehri and Maha Al-Askar, and jewelry designer Al-Hanouf Al-Shaibani.
Dr. Fahd Al-Sultan, the executive director of Peace Project for Cultural Communication, said that the forum aims to enhance the common concepts of coexistence, encourage communication between Saudi Arabia and other societies, and promote the human depth and cultural heritage of Saudi society and its coexistence through history with other races, cultures and religions.
Earlier, the forum hosted a discussion titled “Sport as a means of cultural communication,” which examined the important role sport can play in cultural communication, and how it can help to define a country and its culture in the global arena.
It also discussed Saudi sport and the role of the government in supporting it and contributing to the achievement of excellence at local and international levels.
Vision 2030 stresses the importance of fostering a culture of coexistence and cultural communication among peoples and societies, in addition to enhancing cultural communication between Saudis and the rest of the world, presenting a true image of the Kingdom, and promoting the Kingdom’s contributions to the cultural field and the promoting of coexistence, tolerance and peace.