Vietnam - UNESCO join hands to make culture a sustainable development goal

UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay received Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung

Accompanying the Minister were Ms. Le Thi Hong Van, Ambassador, Head of the Vietnamese Delegation to UNESCO; Ms. Nguyen Phuong Hoa, Director of the Department of International Cooperation (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism). Also attending were Mr. Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of the World Heritage Center; Mr. Ahmed Zaouche, Senior Advisor to the Director General of UNESCO.

At the reception, Minister Nguyen Van Hung thanked the Director General of UNESCO for taking the time to meet bilaterally with the delegation of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Vietnam during the busy 42nd General Assembly with the participation of more than 60 Ministers from member countries. The Minister shared the viewpoint of the Party and State of Vietnam on cultural development, which is similar to the spirit of the Declaration of the World Conference on Cultural Policy and Sustainable Development (Mondiacult 2022). Accordingly, Vietnam considers culture as the driving force of socio-economic development, placing culture on par with economics and politics . In its action programs, the Government of Vietnam has designed a progressive cultural policy framework, meeting citizens' rights to enjoy and participate in cultural life.

Since September 2022, when Vietnam was honored to welcome the Director-General of UNESCO to attend the 50th Anniversary of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage Convention held in Ninh Binh, there have been many results in the cause of cultural development. Vietnam has been newly recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage (Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba archipelago), an Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity (Cham pottery art), two documentary heritages of the Asia- Pacific region (Ma Nhai stele at Ngu Hanh Son scenic spot, Da Nang and Han Nom documents of Truong Luu village, Ha Tinh (1689-1943) and on October 31, the Director General signed a decision to recognize the two cities of Da Lat and Hoi An as UNESCO Creative Cities, bringing the total number of titles recognized by UNESCO in the field managed by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to 35 (eight world cultural and natural heritages, 15 intangible cultural heritages, three world documentary heritages, six documentary heritages of the Asia-Pacific region, three Creative City titles).

At the reception, Minister Nguyen Van Hung affirmed that with the support and companionship of UNESCO, Vietnam has achieved many results in the cause of cultural development.

In 2023, Vietnam also successfully organized a series of activities to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 2003 UNESCO Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Phu Tho and a number of related localities, thereby honoring the values of intangible cultural heritage recognized by UNESCO, strengthening the conservation and promotion of the values of these heritages in Vietnam.

The Vietnamese Government is interested in assigning the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to soon complete and submit to the National Assembly for promulgation the National Target Program for the Development of Vietnamese Culture in the next 10 years with large resources, focusing on cultural revival and development as well as the poverty reduction program to implement the previous Millennium Development Goals.

To further strengthen Vietnam - UNESCO cooperation in the coming time, affirming Vietnam's contribution to the implementation of the United Nations' sustainable development goals, the Minister proposed that the Director General and UNESCO pay attention to supporting Vietnam with international experience and experts, and updating UNESCO's relevant guidelines and regulations in the process of preparing and building the Draft Law on Cultural Heritage to continue perfecting the legal basis for cultural heritage in Vietnam.

Based on the successful results of the UNESCO Pilot Project on Cultural Index to implement the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development on a national scale and in Thua Thien Hue, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism presided over and developed the National Cultural Index, thereby comprehensively and fully assessing the contribution of culture to the country's sustainable development. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism would like to thank UNESCO for supporting the Ministry in developing and implementing the National Cultural Index.

As an active and responsible member of UNESCO, and a candidate for membership of the World Heritage Committee for the 2023-2027 term, as well as a member of the Intergovernmental Committee of the 2003 and 2005 Conventions, Vietnam wishes to spread the message, calling on all countries in the world, especially members of the UNESCO family, to join hands to continue to promote more strongly the conservation and promotion of the values of world heritages on a global scale, contributing to preserving and spreading these extremely valuable cultural treasures to our future generations. Vietnam is currently actively supporting Laos in building the Him-nam-no dossier to become a World Natural Heritage and hopes that UNESCO will support this effort of the two countries.

In addition to asking UNESCO to pay attention to Vietnam's submitted dossiers, Minister Nguyen Van Hung also hopes that UNESCO will pay attention to receiving Vietnamese officials to work at UNESCO's specialized agencies, thereby contributing to improving the qualifications and capacity of Vietnam's professional staff, affirming Vietnam's contributions to UNESCO.

Ms. Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, expressed her gratitude and expressed that the presence of Minister Nguyen Van Hung at UNESCO demonstrates Vietnam's strong commitment to UNESCO's goals. During her visit to Vietnam, she witnessed the important values that Vietnam contributes to UNESCO's cause. It was a memorable trip, when she had the opportunity to see with her own eyes Vietnam's world cultural and natural heritages and the richness of its intangible cultural heritage. She was very impressed with the National Target Program on Cultural Development that the Minister shared, and at the same time expressed her interest and willingness to accompany Vietnam in the process of amending the Law on Cultural Heritage. She hopes that Vietnam will be a pioneer in supporting culture as a separate development goal in the United Nations Agenda after 2030. She wishes Vietnam success in this World Heritage Committee meeting and hopes that Vietnam will play an increasingly active role in UNESCO's activities in the coming time.

THU THUY (from Paris, France)

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