The art movement in Iraq is among the important movements which can contribute to the country’s development. We find that Iraq needs this intellectual artistic development in order to establish a free State. It is necessary that we work on developing and supporting the artistic movement in Iraq in order to promote free thinking which was repressed by the tyrant Saddam Hussein. The latter supported terrorism, crime and filled prisons with oppressed people and made those who had free thinking and free opinions to flee the country. All that resulted from neglecting the free opinion, expression and free art which spread liberation movements. We are closely following what is currently taking place in Iraq, including the corrupt thought and opinions, and especially criminality. Art is one of the most important things which spread freedom and culture. It must start without boundaries to expand science and development capacity. Iraqi people must convey thoughts to the people through authentic art which reflects an enlightened thinking. Iraq is an Arab country which witnessed the American war against terrorism, nuclear armaments and weapons of mass destruction. Iraqis need to join efforts. The young should support the old and benefit from their expertise in order to develop the Iraqi nation. All people should unite and cooperate in various ways to achieve the Iraqi prosperity and development. Added to that, we should encourage foreign investments which can bring new labor markets and eradicate unemployment, which was hampering the nation's economy. We must also eradicate extremism and religious intolerance to avoid dissensions which are eating away the Iraqi nation. We emphasize this issue and we condemn all kinds of religious and intellectual intolerance.

The competent authorities in all countries are expected to show special attention to cultural activities in view of their importance in creating conscious generations. Indeed, the young people should be conversant with all types of relevant information. The future generations should be well educated and open to new other cultures and civilizations. The youth should be ready to cope with international trends easily. In other words, we must enable the children to benefit from their activities. The young learners should acquire the new and modern subjects, at least to some extent. Indeed, the developed countries, particularly the Western nations, show much interest in the juvenile activities. For this reason, most Western children excel in their academic careers. They are actually well educated. Those children know much about the neighboring countries. They even have detailed information about foreign cultures. The appropriate education would empower the developing States because ignorance is a real scourge. Nowadays, the wars between countries are not based on heavy weapons but on intellectual capacities. Thus, the triumph of any nation is based on scientific advancement. Therefore, the schools and universities should be interested in educational activities in academic years and in summer holidays. The young people should be preoccupied with useful activities in their free time.

I encourage the Ministry of Culture regarding the importance of holding such exhibitions. It will have a significant and effective role in the return of the cultural movement in Iraq and its people as they were in the past. It will encourage reading and interest in publications and books that printed literary works for the purpose of displaying, reading them, and making use of them. I hope that such exhibitions would continue and not canceled or suspended because they have a positive and great influence.

The Book Exhibition is important for Iraq since it is considered as a major cultural event for the General Authority of Books in order to exhibit all productions in the Arab region. The importance of such exhibitions lies in encouraging the process of cultural movement in reading and increasing the knowledge of readers in Iraq. The Book Exhibition in Iraq is considered as a platform for knowledge and dialogue exchange. In this regard, the importance of the Exhibition lies in the first place in its nature as a forum of book publishers in their different written, audio and visual techniques and between each other on the one hand, and between these previously mentioned people and culture makers such as creators and intellectuals and the book on the other hand. Therefore, the Exhibition would be an opportunity to spread and exchange cultures and knowledge in Iraq.

Lately, we have seen the noticeable change taking place all over Iraq concerning all its fields, such as sports, culture, arts, etc. For example, when we talk about the cultural field, because the Iraqis are known for their cultural variations which reflect the development and a prosperous civilization, we will also notice that it goes through a long transitional period because of wars and fights which destroyed and ruined most aspects of life, among which was the cultural life. Therefore, its sons are required to think deeply and to use their minds cleverly in order to get the tools that will enable them to handle it. This is after what Iraq has witnessed in the last period of exclusion from cultural life in all fields and must realize that the return and development will take a little more time. It is well known to us that if the cultural life is thriving and developed, it is an evidence of growth and prosperity of the state. On the other hand, if cultural life declines, it is a sign of retreat of the state. So it is the duty of the state to pay great attention to culture and give it adequate care and attention. There are a lot of ways including giving awareness to the importance of culture for everyone to build an educated and powerful state; spreading mobile libraries in public areas and providing them with all the cultural books for all ages; raising the parents' awareness of the need to educate their children, and read to their children to make reading their hobby that will benefit them when they grow old and make them understand the culture in its simple form as a style and approach to life; and other roads that lead to increase the culture of all the Iraqi society. And so the Iraqi people would understand the importance of culture to build community and bring it back to its prestige.