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Arab Africa Net is the homepage of
Arab-African community based in Seoul,
Korea. It was
created to provide an objective news and information on a wide range of issues
related to the Arab and Africa world--
including politics, economy, diplomacy, culture, sports, and religion, among
other things. It is envisioned that this website will promote deeper
understanding on Arabs and Africans that will eventually lead to a better and
mutually beneficial ties between Korean and the Arab-African people.
In January 2000, a group of Arab ambassadors based in Seoul approached Mr Min Byung-il, the then
president of Digital Korea Herald-- an online newspaper affiliated with The
Korea Herald. Mr.Min also served as executive director and editor of the Herald
before taking over online newspaper CEO post. They brought up the idea of
embarking on a project that seeks to promote mutual understanding and friendly
relations between Korea
and the Arab world-- via the Internet. According to them, international mass
media have not been objective in their reports about the Arab world.
Koreans are usually not given an easy
access to correct information about the Arab world.
In the face of this misinformation, these
ambassadors, Mr. Min, and Ms. Esther Lee, chairperson of Space Dreampia Co.,
Ltd. got together over dinner on May 26, 2000 at Ritz Carlton Hotel in Seoul to
discuss in detail on how to create an Internet environment leading to a correct
understanding of the Arab world by Korean netizens which now totaled at about 35
million.
After a month of brainstorming and feasibility work, the project got
underway in July 2000 under the financial and technical sponsorship of the then
Space Group. Finally, the domain http://www.arabplaza.co.kr was officially
registered in August 2000.
During the first year, however, Amb. Ahmed Boutache of Algeria, who also heads the African diplomatic
mission in Korea
and one of the brains of the project--, suggested the need to further
reconstruct the web to expand the scope of its coverage. On July 1, 2001, the
web restarted its service with the new domain: http://www.ArabAfrica.Net.
This website aims to provide Korean
netizens with unbiased news and information about Arab and African countries.
Koo Ja-hyuk, president and CEO of Digital Media Co.,Ltd., was instrumental in
creating the new web site of ArabAfrica.Net.
This cyber space is open to all-- Koreans, Arabs, and African businesses
and individuals, not to mention diplomats from Arab and African communities.
Ambassadors from 13 countries who joined in the meeting on May 26, 2000 were:
Amb. Hussein Elfarouk Derar (Egypt)
Amb.Salem A,J.Al Sabah (Kuwait)
Amb.Nasrat El-Assaad (Lebanon)
Amb. Ahmed Mohamed Tabuli (Libya)
Amb. Ahmed Boutache (Algeria)
Amb.Mohamed Bennani Smires (Morocco)
Amb.Yayha S.H.Al Wahaibi (Oman)
Amb. Ali A.A. Al Musiemani (Qatar)
Amb. Saleh M.Al-Rajhy (Saudi Arabia)
Amb.Abdel Hamied Ibrahim Gibreel (Sudan)
Amb.Mondher Jemail (Tunisia)
Amb.Abdulla M. Al-Shurafa Al-Hammady (UAE)
Charge d'affairs Yahya Ahmed Mohamed Al
Wazir (Yemen).
We
need your support and cooperation to make this website a meaningful
avenue for objective information, more particularly for Korean and Arab-African
people. We welcome your comments and suggestions as all feedback will be
reflected on the improvement of the website in the months to come.
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