There needs to be a strategy to bring Vietnamese relics and antiquities from abroad back to the country.

Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Thanh chaired the discussion session.

Participating in the speech, Most Venerable Thich Duc Thien, National Assembly Delegate of Dien Bien province, commented that comprehensively amending the Law on Cultural Heritage is extremely necessary to meet the strategy of building and developing Vietnamese culture in the current period, especially after the national cultural conference in 2021.

The Draft Law has added the concept of documentary heritage in this amendment. Documentary heritage is cultural heritage expressed in the form of documents that are valuable to a community, a culture, a nation or to humanity in general.

“Although we can find documentary heritage somewhere in both forms: tangible and intangible cultural heritage. However, I support separating documentary heritage into a new type of heritage. Only then can we meet the needs of identifying, managing, protecting and promoting the value of documentary heritage in our country today and open up a direction for future development” - Venerable Thich Duc Thien expressed his opinion.

The delegate said that separating documentary heritage into a new type of heritage is consistent with UNESCO programs such as the Memory of the World program established in 1992 and the world documentary heritage. At the same time, it demonstrates Vietnam's role, responsibility, contribution and commitment in raising public awareness of the value of documentary heritage as well as activities of managing, protecting and promoting the value of Vietnamese heritage to the domestic and international communities.

Most Venerable Thich Duc Thien, National Assembly Delegate of Dien Bien province, spoke at the discussion session.

Regarding the State's policy on cultural heritage, the draft Law stipulates that the State protects the legitimate rights and interests of owners of cultural heritage. Delegates suggested that the drafting committee pay attention to regulations for special cases such as Buddhist cultural heritage in particular and religious cultural heritage in general.

Venerable Thich Duc Thien informed that Vietnamese Buddhism with more than 2,000 years of history has become an indispensable cultural element in the Vietnamese cultural and cultural tradition. Buddhism has created a large part of Vietnam's cultural heritage, in the fields of tangible and intangible cultural heritage, relics, antiquities, national treasures and documentary heritage. Among 130 special national relics, nearly 4,000 national relics, more than 10,000 provincial and city-level relics nationwide, Buddhism has 15 special national relics, 829 national relics and more than 3,000 provincial and city-level relics. Buddhist cultural relics account for 25-30% of the total number of relics nationwide. The Vinh Nghiem Pagoda Woodblocks have been recognized by UNESCO as a World Memory Heritage in the Asia-Pacific region and many woodblocks in pagodas have been recognized as national treasures...

“The 2016 Law on Belief and Religion stipulates that religious establishments are directly managed and used by the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha, which represents the community owner. Therefore, the draft Law needs to clearly stipulate the rights, obligations and responsibilities of religious organizations in managing, protecting and promoting the value of cultural heritage in these cases,” Venerable Thich Duc Thien suggested.

Regarding the regulations on the registration of relics and antiquities, the draft Law stipulates that the State encourages organizations and individuals to register their relics and antiquities with the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism where they reside. According to the delegate, the regulation on the registration of relics and antiquities is extremely necessary. Thereby, it is possible to manage and identify them through codes; form a heritage data set; manage the exchange and sale of relics and antiquities; prevent the problem of theft of relics and antiquities in relics; as well as prevent the bleeding of antiquities abroad. The delegate said that it is necessary to add regulations on the close connection between the registration of relics and antiquities and the interests and rights of the owners when participating in the market of exchange, sale, and display of registered relics and antiquities, only then will the encouragement of registration be effective. In addition, the Government needs to have a strategy for the repatriation of antiquities, bringing relics and antiquities of Vietnamese origin abroad back to the country.

“In order to truly encourage domestic and foreign organizations and individuals to discover, purchase, donate, and transfer to the State relics and antiquities of Vietnamese origin abroad, the draft Law needs to consider exempting related taxes and fees for relics and antiquities repatriated to the country without the purpose of exchanging, buying, selling, or trading for profit. Only then can we truly attract resources for repatriating antiquities to the country,” Venerable Thich Duc Thien proposed.

Source: https://baodienbienphu.com.vn/tin-tuc/chinh-tri/216195/can-co-chien-luoc-dua-di-vat-co-vat-nguon-goc-viet-nam-o-nuoc-ngoai-ve-nuoc