RIYADH — The Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) has inaugurated a project to renovate Seiyun Palace in Hadramout, with funds from the SDRPY and implementation by the UNESCO, with the aim of contributing to supporting the Yemeni government to protect antiquities and endangered historical areas.

General Supervisor of the SDRPY Ambassador Mohammed Bin Saeed Al Jabir; Yemeni Minister of Information, Culture and Tourism Moammar Al-Eryani; Permanent Delegate of Yemen to UNESCO Mohammed Jumeh; Representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to the GCC and Yemen Salah El-Din Zaki Khaled; and Secretary General of the National Committee for Education, Culture and Science Ahmed Bin Abdulaziz Al-Bleihed attended the launching ceremony.

The project is part of helping the Yemeni government to protect the Yemeni heritage, and also a part Saudi Arabia’s leading role in preserving the history and antiquities of the Arabian Peninsula and Arab and Islamic countries, and the Kingdom’s keenness to preserve tangible and intangible heritage in Yemen.

Al-Eryani praised the exerted efforts in the renovation project of Seiyun Palace, including efforts of the SDRPY, stressing that this exceptional effort by the program is an extension of true and noble brotherly stances of Saudi Arabia under the leadership of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and the Crown Prince in helping Yemen and Yemeni people in light of the current circumstances.

For his part, Al-Bleihed conveyed the greetings of Minister of Culture Prince Badr Bin Abdullah Bin Farhan, president of the National Committee for Education, Culture and Science, and expressed the prince’s keenness to work on preserving Yemeni tangible heritage, while voicing the national committee’s pride in participating in the renovation project.

Al Jabir stressed that the project is part of the pivotal role of Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of King Salman and the Crown Prince, in protecting the history and antiquities of the Arabian Peninsula and Arab and Islamic countries and as part of Saudi Arabia’s keenness to protect tangible and intangible heritage in Yemen.

The project to renovate Seiyun Palace in Hadramout is part of 224 projects and development initiatives implemented by the SDRPY in various Yemeni governorates to help the Yemeni people in seven main sectors: education, health, water, energy, transport, agriculture and fishery, building the capacity of government institutions and other development projects. — SPA