General session Connecting Trang An Heritage Urban Area with UNESCO Heritage Cities

After the opening session, the Workshop "Promoting the role and value of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex in building a Millennium Heritage City and connecting world heritage cities" continued with the General Session "Connecting Trang An Heritage City with UNESCO Heritage Cities".

At the working session, delegates, scientists and experts from home and abroad presented reports with the following contents: UNESCO World Heritage Cities - Global Urban Heritage Network towards sustainable development; Comprehensive development strategies in World Heritage Cities - Examples from the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Site, Australia; Heritage tourism and sustainable urban development; Efforts in preserving Trang An heritage, assessing the Management Plan and current status of conservation of Trang An heritage site since its inscription as a World Heritage Site; Exploiting the value of Trang An World Heritage Site - Continuing success, maximizing benefits.

General session Connecting Trang An Heritage Urban Area with UNESCO Heritage Cities — Architect Tran Ngoc Chinh - Chairman of Vietnam Urban Planning and Development Association spoke at the working session.

To clarify the content of "Connecting Trang An heritage urban area with UNESCO heritage cities", experts and scientists including Prof. Dr. Architect Hoang Dao Kinh - Senior Expert; Architect Tran Ngoc Chinh - Chairman of the Vietnam Urban Development Planning Association; Dr. Paul Dingwall - UNESCO International Consultant; Mr. Jonathan Banker, Chief Representative of UNESCO Office in Hanoi; Dr. Architect Emmanuel Cerise - Director of the Paris Region International Cooperation Agency in Vietnam discussed and focused on clarifying issues of honoring, promoting and disseminating the values of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of Trang An Landscape Complex associated with sustainable tourism development, which is a premise towards building a centrally-governed city with the characteristics of a Millennium Heritage City.

Appreciating the outstanding achievements in the past 10 years, the speakers focused on proposing the orientation of the overall conservation planning of the heritage site with an interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary approach as a model of heritage urban. Solutions for the conservation and promotion of the value of Trang An landscape in the coming time include promoting the policy making process, bringing the development and protection of the Heritage to a global approach, protecting the environment, promoting the construction of green works, green buildings, green tourism. Continuing to expand the research on heritage conservation; having assessments of the value of the Heritage for the local, regional and national economy, thereby encouraging investment in the Heritage, attracting tourists and cooperating, connecting World Heritage cities.

Concluding the plenary session, comrade Tran Song Tung, member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee acknowledged and highly appreciated the dedicated and valuable contributions of scientists, and affirmed that the opinions will contribute significantly to the preservation, maintenance and transmission of heritage values to future generations and the construction of Ninh Binh into a centrally-run city with the characteristics of a millennium heritage urban area, a creative city; a large center with high brand value in tourism, cultural industry, and heritage economy of the whole country and the Asia-Pacific region.

The contents of this general session continued to be discussed at the next two thematic sessions: Session 1 "A decade of Trang An World Heritage - Journey of creation, conservation and promotion of values"; Session 2 "Planning for comprehensive conservation and promotion of the values of Trang An World Heritage towards a millennium heritage city".

Song Nguyen - Minh Hai - Anh Tuan

Source