Dominican Government Working on Academic Agreement with Egypt

The Dominican government will soon reach several academic agreements with the American University in Cairo, Egypt. These accords are the result of a meeting between President Leonel Fernández and authorities from this prestigious university.

The president gave a short summary about how Dominican education has evolved while applying technology to the education system, explaining the importance of educational agreements with other countries…

President Fernández met with the university’s Director of Continuing Education, Edward Simpson, and ten other academics from the various departments as well as a group of outstanding students from around the world who attend this university in Cairo, including Dominican, Carmen Félix, according to the President’s Office of Information, Press and Publicity.

Fernández explained his interest in having Dominican universities, especially the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, team up with the Egyptians in the areas of Technology & Communication, Political Science and History. He pointed to the advantages of having Dominican students travel to Cairo to study and for Egyptian students to travel to the DR to do the same in an exchange of knowledge and experience.

Fernández explained to the delegation that met him in Egypt that his goal is for Dominican students to have a more open view of the world and to optimize their capacities in view of the current economic situation and global crisis in order to gain more opportunities.

Among the university professors present at the meeting were Doctors Amarsa Lama, Ashraf El-Fiqi, Hussein Amín, Ali Habid and Amer Ezzat Salama.

The president gave a short summary about how Dominican education has evolved while applying technology to the education system, explaining the importance of educational agreements with other countries and how they have increased possibilities to train and educate people in various fields.

On the part of the American University, authorities thanked the Dominican leader for his visit, calling it historic, and complementing him on his outstanding leadership. They added that they are intending to back the signing of the agreements in an effort to arrive at a satisfactory situation for the Dominican government.

Fernández spoke with students from various countries who were chosen to participate in the meeting which included Carmen Félix who is majoring in Arabic Language. The president pointed to her effort as an example of how Latin American youth are finding common ground with young people from the Middle East by learning each others language.

Prior to this meeting, President Fernández met with Egyptian intellectuals in the Al-Ahram Political and Strategic Study Center where he explained his interest in getting to know the Arab world in order to collaborate as countries seeking solutions to the conflicts that affect the area.

He reiterated his government’s decision to choose a position on the United Nations Security Council this coming year, adding that he will be in a better position to seek resolutions to the region’s conflicts while also seeking balance and equality.

Amed Monen told the President that Egyptian intellectuals are attempting to make rational sense of the major conflicts threatening peace and stability in the Middle East.

Mr. Monem said Fernández’s visit will be the beginning of a friendship between Dominicans and Egyptians who have many things in common, he said, including physical characteristics.

They asked the Dominican President how his country has managed to survive in the midst of the current economic crisis without collapsing like other nations have.

Fernández said that the world of politics is undergoing a transformation in which the new policies of President Barack Obama are playing an important role.

He added that his desire is to see a world in which there is more integration of Middle Eastern and Dominican intellectuals which would encourage the interchange of knowledge about both nation’s realities and that, in general, Latin America could better understand the other side of the world.