WAM Rome, 24th April 2012 (WAM) -- UAE Foreign Minister HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan opened today the Sheikh Zayed Centre for Multimedia and Knowledge at the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) heaquarters here.

The Centre will provide the live broadcasting facilities and capacity-building infrastructures necessary to continue the fight against hunger and to enhance knowledge sharing and e-learning throughout the organization.

Sheikh Abdullah was welcomed at the FAO headquarters by FAO Director-General Jos? Graziano da Silva, UAE Minister of Environment and Water Dr Rashid Ahmed bin Fahad, UAE Ambassador to Italy Abdul Aziz Nasser Al Shamsi, accredited ambassadors to FAO and a crowd of Italian politicians and mediapersons.

Addressing the high)profile audience, Sheikh Abdullah commended tremendous efforts made by all stakeholders; especially former FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf; to make this signature facility a reality.

The UAE minister highlighted the vision of the UAE founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, for agricultural and rural development as the bedrock of civilisation and a key facilitator to eradicate poverty and hunger in the world.

Sheikh Abdullah promised the UAE would cooperate through the Centre to realise the noble goals of eradicating hunger and poverty and using the centre as a platform for dialogue on poverty issues across the world.

In his turn, FAO Director-General Jos? Graziano da Silva, paid rich gratitude to the leadership and government of the UAE and Sheikh Abdullah for their constant support for FAO-anti poverty policies.

He said the Zayed Centre will serve as a channel of communication to discuss such issues and find solutions to them.

The structure's eyecatching design was inspired by words of Sheikh Zayed regarding agriculture water, and environment. It depicts the UAE heritage through Water Basins, Palm Groves and Trees of Life. The architect used a quote by the visionary leader Sheikh Zayed, which aptly summarises the Centre's mission: "Give me agriculture and I will give you civilisation". A portray of Sheikh Zayed and some of his famous quotations were placed at the entrance of the Centre.

The UAE aims to create a multimedia centre within the FAO headquarters able to accommodate, with appropriate technology, officials from 192 countries, as well as journalists, who during the organisation of large conventions may number up to 1,500 in total.

WAM/TF