Preserving and promoting the "gold mine" of Vietnamese cultural heritage

Preserving and promoting the value of cultural heritage is one of the important tasks, contributing to building a prosperous and happy country.

Gìn giữ và phát huy sức mạnh mềm của dân tộc

Cultural heritage is an invaluable asset, connecting ethnic communities, the core of national identity, the basis for creating new values and cultural exchange. (Source: TITC)

Vietnam's priceless assets

According to the results of the inventory of relics of localities, nationwide there are currently about 40,000 historical - cultural relics and scenic spots distributed across all regions of the country, which have been inventoried and catalogued according to the provisions of the Law on Cultural Heritage.

Of which, there are 8 world cultural and natural heritages recognized by UNESCO, 128 special national monuments, 3,614 national monuments, and more than 10,000 provincial-level monuments.

Museums across the country currently preserve and display nearly 3 million documents and artifacts, of which 265 artifacts and groups of artifacts are recognized as national treasures.

Along with the treasure of tangible cultural heritage, our country also has a treasure of intangible cultural heritage that is diverse in types, rich in reserves, and unique in history, culture, and science.

To date, about 70,000 intangible cultural heritages have been inventoried nationwide, of which 498 intangible cultural heritages have been included in the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List, 15 intangible cultural heritages have been listed by UNESCO in the Representative Lists of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity and Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding.

UNESCO has also listed nine documentary heritages under the Memory of the World program.

Experts say that cultural heritage is an invaluable asset, connecting the ethnic community, the core of national identity, the basis for creating new values and cultural exchange. Relics, especially historical relics associated with the resistance revolution, also contribute significantly to educating the younger generation about the tradition of fighting to protect the Fatherland, the patriotism of our nation, the national cultural identity, the community cohesion and promoting the fine traditions of our people.

Besides being a spiritual foundation and an endogenous factor contributing to cultural development and shaping identity, the Vietnamese cultural heritage system is also making a significant contribution to the economic development of localities with heritage in particular and the country's economy in general.

Many relics and heritages have become complete cultural and tourism products with unique characteristics, creating attractive tourist destinations and routes, attracting a large number of domestic and international tourists.

Vietnam's cultural heritage is a valuable asset of the Vietnamese ethnic community. (Source: Natural Resources and Environment Newspaper)

Key Mission

According to the Law on Cultural Heritage, Vietnamese cultural heritage is a valuable asset of the Vietnamese ethnic community and is a part of the world's cultural heritage, playing a great role in the cause of building and defending the country of our people.

Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Van Bai, Vice Chairman of the National Cultural Heritage Council, stated that preserving cultural heritage is a key task of the cultural development strategy, first of all because it contains core cultural values of the nation.

Cultural heritage has the potential to contribute greatly to the need to build a healthy and cultured social environment (social stability) which is a top priority for sustainable development. This can also be considered as "soft power" - Vietnam's strength.

Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Van Bai said that preserving cultural heritage is to fulfill the educational function of culture, meeting the requirements of building and cultivating humane ideology, ethics, lifestyle and training quality human resources to promote the cause of industrialization, modernization of the country and international integration.

The Vice Chairman of the National Cultural Heritage Council emphasized: "The preservation of national cultural heritage is meaningful in building a spiritual foundation and also in terms of material and economic aspects. Because cultural heritage is a special type of resource, it can be sold many times, sold to many people with high value. Its contribution to the culture as well as the economy of the country is enormous.

Therefore, if we look at cultural heritage from the perspective of a valuable asset of the nation, a part of the cultural heritage of humanity, we need to have a truly innovative response to cultural heritage.

We need to inventory, survey, and evaluate the cultural heritage system, increase the application of technology in heritage conservation, and promote heritage education for generations, especially the young generation.

I hope that the issue of dealing with cultural heritage and the contribution of cultural heritage to the economy will be properly identified, thereby perfecting the system of policies and laws to better preserve cultural heritage in the future."

On the business side, Mr. Pham Ha, CEO of LUX Group, affirmed that Vietnam has a "gold mine" of rich and diverse cultural heritage resources.

"To achieve the goal of welcoming 35 million international visitors and serving 160 million domestic visitors by 2030, with a domestic visitor growth rate of 4-5% per year, I think we need to reposition Vietnam's national brand.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has issued a marketing strategy for Vietnam tourism until 2030. In my opinion, let's position Vietnam tourism as 'Asia's leading heritage destination' or 'Touching Vietnam's heritage'. When we cherish heritage, we will have appropriate and creative ways to protect, respond appropriately and elevate heritage."

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