Under the auspices of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Minister of Culture and Information and Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Dr. Adel bin Zaid Al-Toraifi inaugurated yesterday the new building of the (SPA), at Al-Sihafa neighborhood, in Riyadh. At the outset, the ceremony started with reciting verses from the Holy Quran, then the President of the SPA Abdullah bin Fahd al-Hussein, delivered a speech welcoming the attendees of the ceremony of inauguration of the new building of the Saudi Press Agency, under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, stressing that it would be a leap towards the future and that more serious and fruitful work of "SPA" will continue, as it will shoulder the tasks and responsibilities, proceeding from its role in provision of distinct media to win the confidence of everyone. Al-Hussein expressed thanks and gratitude of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Crown Prince and the Deputy Crown, for their continued support and care that enabled the "SPA" to achieve and equip the project, praising the Minister of Culture and Information and the Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Press agency for his ongoing support and follow up of the agency's building project. He explained that the building of (SPA) is located on a ten thousand square meters, consists of several parts. The first consists of ten floors of departmental newsletter equipped with video system, a media center consists of three floors and a theater can accommodate up to 380 seats, equipped with a sophisticated, integrated lighting and sound and interpretation of three foreign languages, along with a special building for the Department of Women's which consists of two floors of administrative offices, simultaneous translation, a mosque, parking and rooms for support services. Due to the continuous support from the state, Al-Hussein stated that the Saudi Press Agency ranked among the best of media system, in Saudi Arabia and even managed to emulate elder news agencies, in the world and was able to over forty-six years to put its mark on the media map among more than two hundred news agencies, around the world. It remains ahead, despite the intense competition created by the revolution of technologies, the flow of information and the plurality and diversity of the media, a midst most of the major sources of safe news, proceeding from its commitment to the elements of credibility, objectivity, transparency and professional ethics, which, categorically, reject the excitement and bathos, Al-Hussein added. During the year, (SPA) has launched new three languages services, in Russian, Chinese and Persian, joining the previous two languages of English and French diffuse the news of the Kingdom across languages to different parts of the world, as it is now facing a new stage with the completion of the new building, which provided all the capabilities, techniques and integrated services to meet needs of current time and the future, he concluded. Then the audience watched a documentary about history of the emergence of the Saudi Press Agency, development stages through which over more than 45 years, before moving to the new buildings. The Minister and then the audience watched a visual presentation depicting the building components, administrative offices, editorial and technical departments. Then, the Minister of Culture and Information addressed the audience, expressing pride in the launch of a the new building of (SPA), under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud to be a new addition in the process of this entity, which is running ably the realm of media and the news mission for more than four decades, in pursuance of a distinctive and high professionalism, credibility and objectivity that transcends to new horizons, in accordance with the policy of the Kingdom, emanating from the general policy of the state, with all its principles and values. Al-Toraifi extended sincere thanks, appreciation and praise to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the Crown Prince and the Deputy Crown Prince, for providing the culture and Media sectors with support and guidance, in general, and the News Agency, in particular, and we are in this evening reap fruit of this support and guidance, he added. The minister highly valued efforts exerted to build the integrated premise of the SPA, to meet current and future needs, as well, and to furnish the best working environment and a good ground for strenuous and continuous work and contribution to send the Kingdom message to the world, in many languages to guarantee reach out with world and reflecting a good image of the Kingdom He added that in light of media developments and successive information revolution and technology and the resulting streams from multiple sources and media variety, news credibility has become so keen to (SPA) because the credibility of the recipient and the reader, will be done in record time, that does not differentiate between traditional media and new media, he stressed. "SPA" works ably and efficiently in order to accommodate and keep up with accelerating media, tools and developments, expressing pride in the Saudi youth who speak five languages, in (SPA), and pointed out that (SPA) will increase, in the coming months a number of modern languages, in order to increase the presence of the Kingdom in more in every global forum. The minister followed by gracing the names of the previous ministers of culture and information, the former directors of the SPA and some senior and veteran staff of the SPA. At the end of the ceremony, Al-Hussein presented the shield of SPA to the minister, while Al-Hussein, himself, received another from the minister, on behalf of the staff of the agency, which was presented by the Deputy President of SPA, Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al-Awadh. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dr. Mohammed bin Ibrahim Al-Suwayel, Head of Investigation and Prosecution Commission Sheikh Mohammed bin Fahd Al-Abdullah, editors of print and online papers and representatives of local and foreign news media, as well.
