Attending the conference were Vice Chairman of Ninh Binh Provincial People's Committee Tran Song Tung; Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine Nguyen Ngoc Ha; Assistant Director General of UNESCO for African Priorities and External Relations Firmin Edouard Matoko; Chief Representative of UNESCO Office in Hanoi Jonathan Baker.
 |
| UNESCO General Conference President Simona-Mirela Miculescu during a visit to the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex World Heritage Site, April 2024. (Photo: Anh Tuan) |
Also attending were representatives of the UNESCO Office in the Asia-Pacific region; the School of Interdisciplinary Sciences & Arts (Hanoi National University); representatives of departments, branches, People's Committees of districts, cities and Xuan Truong construction enterprise.
At the Conference, Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Hong Thuc, Head of the Research Project "Evaluating the economic value of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex", said that Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex - the only cultural and natural heritage of Southeast Asia, was recognized by UNESCO as a world heritage in 2014.
Assessing the overall picture of Trang An heritage site today after 10 years of receiving the title of mixed world heritage, the Project is built through 4 research branches: Natural heritage; cultural heritage; settlement heritage; and tourism economy and outstanding complex values of humanity and Southeast Asia.
Accordingly, the Project has evaluated the brand and economic value of representative sites and works at heritage sites that are being preserved and exploited for tourism activities.
This is an activity to create a foundation for policy orientation, taking Trang An - Hoa Lu heritage as a driving force to promote tourism economy, heritage economy, creative economy; preserving heritage as a source for developing heritage urban areas in the context of strong urbanization in Vietnam; spreading the mixed world heritage brand of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex to the world, Southeast Asia and the country in the context of globalization; bringing Trang An heritage to participate in the network of world heritage urban areas, the network of creative cities, and global learning cities of UNESCO.
The project was conducted by Vietnamese experts (at Hanoi National University), in collaboration with international experts (UNESCO, Santagata Foundation, IOER Leitbild) to ensure scientific and international accuracy. The project evaluation results were published internationally in terms of science and communicated internationally about the current values as well as the future opportunity values of this important complex world heritage.
Speaking at the conference, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for African Priorities and External Relations Firmin Edouard Matoko highly appreciated the scientific nature of the Project and said that there have been positive changes thanks to the heritage, such as improved people's lives and stable livelihoods, which he did not see in many places.
Chief Representative of UNESCO Hanoi Office Jonathan Baker also emphasized the importance and uniqueness of Trang An, Ninh Binh as the only mixed natural heritage in Southeast Asia.
Director of Ninh Binh Department of Tourism Bui Van Manh affirmed that the research results of the Project will be the basis for the province to develop policies and strategies to exploit the potential and strengths of Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex in an effective, sustainable and harmonious manner.
To successfully implement this meaningful project, Mr. Bui Van Manh also requested that the provincial departments, branches, and local authorities in the heritage site continue to cooperate closely with experts and scientists in researching, forecasting, updating information, and developing plans to preserve, exploit, and sustainably develop the heritage; ensuring that all tourism exploitation and development activities do not negatively affect the value of the heritage.
Comment (0)