That was expected for several months: Dominique Baudis, 59 years old, was elected on Thursday February 1st President of the Arab world Institute (IMA) in Paris. He succeeded Yves Guéna, 84 years old, who was president of the IMA since 2004. His priority task will be to solve the financial problems of the cultural institution that will celebrate this year its 20th anniversary. The Arab World Institute recruits one hundred fifty paid employees and benefits from a budget (2006) of Euros 23 million. It is basically financed by France (60%), which allocates through the Quai D’orsey around Euros 9 million. As for the remaining 40%, they are provided by the twenty-two member states of the Arab League. The contributions of some Arab countries are irregular not to say absent. A replacement solution was set up in 1996. An allocation fund was supposed to bring in financial products. This fund collected at the end of 2006 Euros 39 Millions only, negotiations being notably in progress with Iraq and Libya. The Institute has been incurring for ten years a yearly deficit varying from Euros 2 to 5 million.

Head of the Audiovisual High Council until January 2006, Dominique Baudis has been unanimously elected for a 3-year-mandate by the Board of Directors of the Institute. The Council is formed of six Arab members, designated by the High Council of the twenty-two founding States of the Arab League and by six members designated by the French state. Before getting involved in politics (centrist, he followed his father Pierre Baudis in 1983 as mayor of Toulouse, where he remained for eighteen years), Dominique Baudis worked as journalist in the Middle East and more particularly in Lebanon: As military servant in the Lebanese radio and television from 1971 till 1973, he worked as reporter for the TF1 (public channel then) in the Middle East from 1974 till 1976, and covered the Lebanese war. He was wounded in 1975. His knowledge of the Arab world allowed him to write several works on the region: The Passion of the Christians of Lebanon (1978), Death in Keffieh (1980), Raymond of the East (1999).

Created in 1980 and inaugurated late 1987, the IMA is the showcase of the Arab world in Paris. It encompasses a museum, a library, a media library, exhibitions or spectacle halls as well as a restaurant, covering thus a total area of 26 900 m² stretching over nine floors. The Institute offers exhibitions, shows, concerts, movies, school workshops or debates concerning artistic, cultural, political or social issues in the Arab countries. These events attracted in 2005 one million visitors.