Providing more resources to preserve national cultural heritage

After revisions, the draft adds many new regulations, creating a legal corridor for activities to protect and promote the value of cultural heritage in general, and some regulations related to intangible cultural heritage, relics, artifacts, antiquities, national treasures, documentary heritage and museums.

In particular, the addition of regulations on the content of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Conservation Fund in Article 92 of the draft law is considered necessary to solve difficulties in the work of preserving and promoting the value of national cultural heritage.

According to statistics from the Department of Cultural Heritage (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism), Vietnam currently has more than 40,000 relics listed in the inventory, 130 special national relics, 3,621 national relics, over 11,000 provincial relics, eight world cultural and natural heritages recognized by UNESCO; 10 documentary heritages listed by UNESCO; about 70,000 intangible cultural heritages nationwide have been inventoried, 571 heritages listed in the national intangible cultural heritage list, 15 intangible cultural heritages listed by UNESCO...

This rich cultural heritage system is both an asset and a resource for exploitation and development of the economy , society and tourism; and an important resource in building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity. Therefore, the Party and the State always pay attention to the work of preserving and promoting the values of the country's cultural heritage.

However, funding for investment, conservation, restoration and maintenance of relics is still limited compared to the potential and actual needs of the heritage. Many national relics are damaged and degraded, but have not been funded for restoration, reducing the significance and value of the relics.

The current Law on Cultural Heritage only stipulates that the State has policies to protect and promote the value of cultural heritage; encourages organizations and individuals to participate in contributing and sponsoring the protection and promotion of cultural values; does not specifically stipulate the content and how to implement contributions and sponsorships, leading to infeasible implementation.

In the context of limited State budget, the establishment of the Heritage Conservation Fund will mobilize social resources, promptly implement activities to protect and promote the value of heritage that has not been allocated budget or has insufficient budget for restoration; at the same time, it also meets the practical needs of collecting and preserving artifacts; purchasing and bringing artifacts and antiques of Vietnamese origin from abroad to the country; purchasing and preserving artifacts and antiques of special value in the country, protecting intangible cultural heritage, documentary heritage at risk of fading or being lost, etc.

Recently, the repatriation of valuable antiquities from abroad has encountered many difficulties, partly due to the legal corridor. More importantly, it is due to the lack of financial resources available to participate in auctions according to international law. Many experts in the field of heritage have recommended the need to study and propose to the National Assembly to allow the establishment of a special fund for cultural heritage to have a special reserve budget for national cultural heritage.

Therefore, the regulation of the content of the Vietnam Cultural Heritage Conservation Fund in the draft Law on Cultural Heritage (amended) both meets practical needs and is the legal basis for establishing the fund.

In fact, in some areas, we have had a number of non-budgetary state financial funds established with legal status such as the National Technology Innovation Fund established in 2021 under the Law on Technology Transfer 2017, the Overseas Employment Support Fund established in 2021 under the Law on Vietnamese Workers Working Abroad under Contract, in 2020, the Tourism Development Support Fund established under the Law on Tourism 2017... however, some funds are not operating effectively and cannot mobilize resources into the fund.

The legalization of the content of the Cultural Heritage Conservation Fund contributes to creating a legal corridor to build mechanisms and policies suitable to specific factors in preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage, providing timely and favorable support for activities according to the above objectives.

However, it is necessary to consider the possibility of mobilizing contributions from the community and beneficiaries of heritage activities...

Although the draft Law clearly states the sources of revenue and charter capital provided by the state budget; funding sources, voluntary and legal contributions from domestic and foreign enterprises, organizations and individuals; other legal sources of revenue as prescribed by law, etc., the drafting agency needs to continue to receive comments and revise and perfect the regulations related to this fund, ensuring feasibility, publicity, transparency and conditions for the fund to operate effectively.

In addition, it is necessary to build a suitable management mechanism, closely following reality and predicting profiteering behaviors from this type of fund, so that socialized funding sources and the state budget can maximize their effectiveness in cultural heritage conservation activities in a proactive and professional manner; avoiding the situation where the promulgated laws do not keep up with the development of society.

Source: https://nhandan.vn/tiep-them-nguon-luc-bao-ton-di-san-van-hoa-dan-toc-post835074.html