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His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said knowledge and books are the basis for national development Image Credit: Twitter/@HHShkMohd

Dubai: His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Monday inaugurated the Mohammed bin Rashid Library, the largest library in the region built at a cost of Dh1 billion.

The seven-storey, 1 million square feet building features more than 1 million books, 6 million research dissertations and nine specialised sub-libraries.

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The library is located by the creek in Jadaf area Image Credit: Supplied

“The first word sent from heaven to earth was ‘Iqra’ which means Read. The economy entails knowledge, politics needs wisdom, and nations stand in need of science. All of that is contained in books and today we have an edifice of millions of books with which we push our development journey to the next level and ensure a better life for generations to come,” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted.

The library is based on six pillars: the first is the main library, which includes eight specialised libraries for Children, Youth, Family, Business, Arabic, International, Popular and Multimedia.