Shihab to preside over Oman Day celebration in Spain

HIS Highness Sayyid Shihab bin Tareq Al Said, Adviser to His Majesty the Sultan, is to preside in Saragossa today over Oman Day celebration as part of Zaragoza International Exposition 2008 on “Water and sustainable development”. The event will be attended by Omani and Spanish officials.

HH Sayyid Shihab and the commissioner of Expo 2008 as well as a representative of the Spanish government will deliver speeches during the celebration, which will also include Omani music performances at the hall of the Expo Conference Centre. The celebration will also include visits to an Omani fine arts exhibition at the gallery, Oman’s pavilion and Spain’s pavilion. On the same day, the Sultanate will host a reception at the Conference Centre.

As part of the Sultanate’s participation in the Saragossa Expo, both the First Royal Band for Music and Folklore and the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra held performances at Pillar Square in downtown Saragossa, attended by Spaniards in addition to members of Arab and foreign communities in Spain.

Meanwhile, a seminar entitled “Aflaj in Oman” was also held yesterday at the Conference Centre of Saragossa Expo. Speakers were experts in the field of water in Oman as this year’s expo is staged under the theme “Water and sustainable development”. Shaikh Abdullah bin Nasser al Bakri, Under-Secretary of Water Resources Affairs at the Ministry of Regional Municipalities and Water Resources said the seminar aims to highlight the role of the falaj in social development in the Sultanate as well as the urban stability achieved for thousands of years, until today. The seminar was attended by a number of experts from countries participating in expo. — ONA