Date palm festival offers visitors chance to leave lasting legacy

Visitors interested in leaving a lasting mark of their presence in the UAE can now plant date palm trees at the fifth edition of the Emirates International Date Palm Festival in Abu Dhabi. The saplings will be inscribed with the names of the visitors. The festival is being held at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec). All the saplings will be presented to President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan at a special ceremony at Khalifa Park after the festival ends on Saturday. ‘Something special\' \"We wanted to do something special for this year\'s festival, especially in light of the UAE\'s 40th National Day… We hope to present Shaikh Khalifa with approximately 150 saplings at a date to be announced after the festival ends,\" Qaboos Khalid, the festival\'s project director, said. The festival was opened yesterday by Shaikh Nahyan Bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, who toured the venue with Saqr Gobash Saeed Gobash, Minister of Labour; Dr Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahd, Minister of Environment and Water; Azuldin Abdullah Hussain, Iraq\'s Minister of Agriculture; Rashid Al Sharqi, director-general of the Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority (ADFCA); Jamal Al Majid of Al Majid Group and other dignitaries.