2023 a successful year of Vietnam’s cultural diplomacy at UNESCO: Ambassador

2023 was a successful year for Vietnam’s multilateral external relations and cultural diplomacy at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), according to former Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO Ambassador Le Thi Hong Van.

Firstly, the year saw the highest number of mutual visits between Vietnam and UNESCO, contributing to deepening bilateral relations, optimising the knowledge and resources from the organisation for the country’s development.

Secondly, 2023 witnessed historical milestones in Vietnam’s multilateral external relations at UNESCO, demonstrating the international community’s confidence and support to Vietnam’s ability of making contributions to and management capacity at global multilateral institutions, said the former ambassador, underlining that for the first time, Vietnam has undertaken positions in five key management mechanisms of UNESCO at the same time, including three Vice Chair positions.

Thirdly, Vietnam won many titles and a large number of Vietnam’s heritages were honoured at UNESCO during the year. With the recognition of Ha Long Bay-Cat Ba Archipelago world natural heritage site, the addition of Da Lat and Hoi An cities to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network, and the honoring of the progenitor of Vietnamese traditional medicine, Hai Thuong Lan Ong Le Huu Trac, Vietnam has so far won 65 UNESCO titles. Last year, Vietnam also successfully repatriated the seal “Hoang de chi bao” (Treasure of the Emperor), the imperial seal of the Nguyen Dynasty.

Fourthly, in 2023, Vietnam continued to make important contributions to shaping strategic issues and global policies with the hosting of the first UNESCO international conference on harnessing the values of UNESCO titles for sustainable development in Ninh Binh.

Fifthly, last year also saw the organisation of many important events of Vietnam at UNESCO headquarters, contributing to promoting and spreading cultural values as well as the image of the nation and people of Vietnam among international friends. The three nights of Vietnamese Heritage at UNESCO highlighted the rich tradition, diverse culture and the depth of Vietnamese culture, sending out the message of a dynamic country in reform and integration with rich tradition and strong national identity, stated Van.

Regarding measures to promote the values of UNESCO titles and heritage for economic development and vice versa, the former Permanent Representative of Vietnam to UNESCO said that the experience of Vietnam and other countries showed that in order to harmonise preservation and development, it is necessary to enhance public awareness of conserving and promoting values of titles, while improving the State management efficiency over the heritage through completing the legal document system, and designing plans for preserving and promoting the titles along with paying greater attention to the role of communities and people.

At the same time, it is necessary to speed up digital transformation in heritage management and exploitation, diversifying heritage communications and education methods, strengthening regional, national and international connectivity in protecting and empowering cultural heritage with effective exploitation of economic aspects of the heritage in order to increase their contributions to socio-economic development, stated Van.

In her opinion, at the UNESCO, Vietnam should focus on five major tasks - actively proposing ideas and initiatives and optimising UNESCO's policies in realising national targets; continuing to make the Vietnam-UNESCO partnership deeper, more substantial and effective; engaging in the building and submitting dossiers of Vietnamese heritage for UNESCO titles to create more resources and encourage sustainable socio-economic development models in localities; continuing to show strong performance in implementing the country’s positions in five key management mechanisms of UNESCO; and pioneering in popularising the image of the nation, people and culture of Vietnam to the world, Van underlined.