Hanoi wants to preserve and promote historical-cultural values, moving its integration and participation towards cultural activities of the region and the world, said Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Nguyen Van Phong in a meeting with UNESCO Representative to Viet Nam Christian Manhart in the capital city on June 17.

Deputy Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Nguyen Van Phong presents a souvenir to the UNESCO Representative in Vietnam Christian Manhart. Photo: hanoimoi

Phong said the city registered with UNESCO to join the Creative Cities Network (UCCN) in 2019 as creativity on the basis of culture, education, and history is an important issue, being in line with the general development trend of the world and Vietnam as well.

He said, despite the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years, Hanoi has focused on realizing its plans to concretize its commitments when participating in UCCN.

Hanoi has included content related to the creative city and cultural development into the city's major policies for the period from now to 2030 and a vision for 2045.

“We identify the development of tourism, culture and cultural industry based on the creative city is one of the decisive solutions for the sustainable development of Hanoi. This is confirmed in Resolution No. 09-NQ/TU of the City Party Committee on Developing the cultural industry in the Capital area for the period 2021-2025, orientation to 2030, vision to 2045," Phong said.

The City People's Committee has also issued a plan to fulfill its commitments to UNESCO when participating in UCCN. However, this is a new field that Vietnam and Hanoi do not have much experience in, so we hope that UNESCO will cooperate and support Hanoi in this process,” he added.

To turn its ambitions into reality, Phong said the city plans to host the UCCN forum in the Asia-Pacific region in 2023 and build a creative design center - those are seen as highlights in the next year.

He said Hanoi is a special city with 1,350 traditional craft villages - a strength that can be developed into a private brand. Through the creative design center, the city will promote the products of craft villages to friends around the world. “We are planning to organize a traditional craft village festival at the end of the year, which is expected to be an annual event.”

Regarding the world cultural heritage of Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Phong proposed UNESCO closely cooperate and accompany the city in the process of investing, exploiting, and promoting the value of the relic site.

“An international scientific seminar on the citadel will be organized this year. We expect UNESCO to introduce experts, share experiences in human resource training as well as organize exchange activities so that Hanoi can reach the results of the plans,” Phong said.

At the meeting, UNESCO Representative in Vietnam Christian Manhart expressed his impression of Hanoi's results and intentions related to UCCN and the preservation and promotion of heritage values. He agreed to work closely with Hanoi and accompany the city in the coming time.

In order to implement activities related to Hanoi's commitments to UCCN effectively, Manhart proposed the city urgently establish a contact point so that information can be exchanged between the two sides in the shortest way.

He suggested Hanoi send a representative to participate in the UCCN International Conference to be held in Brazil on July 21. This is an opportunity to learn and exchange experiences among countries of the network.

Manhart said that UNESCO is ready to cooperate with Hanoi in training young creatives as well as implement projects toward sustainable tourism development, and communication programs to promote the image of Hanoi to international friends.

With over a thousand years of history, Hanoi has contained typical characteristics of Vietnamese culture and is seen as a gateway to international exchanges with the imprints of many cultures around the world.

The population of Hanoi is about 10 million people, of which, 52% is the young population, and 65% of the intellectual force. About 70% of universities and colleges nationwide are placed in the capital city.