Hanoi, the thousand-year cultural city, is known for its long history and richness of culture, Michael Croft, Acting UNESCO Representative to Vietnam, told The Hanoi Times in a recent interview.

Michael Croft, Acting UNESCO Representative to Vietnam.

What do you think about Hanoi’s efforts to promote its culture, especially its traditional cultural values, for its socio-economic development plan? 

Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam, has been well-known within the UNESCO networks for its long history and richness of culture.

We have recently observed the particular attention and collective efforts in promoting cultural resources. Notably, the wide public consultation led by the city from 2018-2019 resulted in its successful dossiers obtaining the designation of a Creative City of Design in October 2019. This event marked a new milestone in the city’s development agenda, placing culture at the heart of sustainable development.

The new milestone also demonstrates that Hanoi shall not only be known for its long history and richness of cultural heritage and traditions but also reveals a new vision, together with its enormous human resources with many talents and ready to bring about innovation and quality growth taking advantage of its cultural resources.

UNESCO is very impressed by the city’s determination, evidenced in their Strategic Resolution on cultural industries, together with a series of actions during the last four years. The sequences of high-level policy dialogues and technical conferences, including the historic seminar on “mobilizing cultural and human resources for the development of Hanoi capital city”, the annual Hanoi Creativity and Design Week 2021-2022 and the significant Hanoi Creative Festival 2023, series of international conferences, exposition, cultural and craft fairs.

These are only a few to name among numerous activities and events that have taken place and shown the high level of efforts made by both authorities and stakeholders in promoting its culture and making culture a true pillar of development.

The apparent indication of the city’s transformation could be observed in a number of heritage and cultural relics which have been revitalized and transformed into vibrant places with vivid exhibitions and showcases of artworks. To name a few, one could easily see and participate in many events that take place at the Temple of Literature, Thang Long Citadel, Hoan Kiem Lake, Hang Dau Water Balance Tower, Gia Lam Train Factory, and over 30 other cultural sites and attractions around the city.

Hang Dau Water Tower, built in the late 19th century, is now decorated to be one of Hanoi's tourist destinations. Photo: Huy Pham/The Hanoi Times

What do you think about the impacts of UNESCO designations on Hanoi’s heritage given cultural preservation and promotion or tourism development? What has UNESCO done to support the city and what is going to do to cooperate with the city in the future?

A notable highlight in our observation has been the active participation of the youth force and most of the culture campaigns and events recently succeeded in mobilizing greater participation of Hanoi’s residents and its visitors, transitioning from the stage-audience modality to a more participatory approach and quality culture participation.

In addition, we gladly notice the positive public-private policy dialogues and partnerships that took place since the early consultation period when the City prepared its application dossiers and continued to result in many cooperation projects and activities in line with the new development agenda of Hanoi as the Creative Capital with innovative ideas and actions.

Since its official designation as a Creative City of Design, we observed significant moves in all dimensions of urban regeneration, creative education, and culture dynamics with active community participation. We hear keywords such as “culture identity and creativity” in those strategic city planning forums, from innovative ideas for master planning along the Red River’s banks to the practical, innovative proposals of lighting up the heritage and cultural sites in the Old Quarter.

There are many indications for the increasing attention and investment in both tangible and intangible cultural heritages by the government and wide artists and creative practitioners. I would recall the remarks by representatives from nearly 20 UNESCO creative cities in Asia at the Hanoi International Conference last November. Participants appraised the program that Hanoi was implementing, which enabled an open-ended playground for many talents to participate, including their peers in Southeast Asia.

Gia Lam Train Factory, one of the places in the Hanoi Creative Festival 2023. Photo: Huy Pham/The Hanoi Times

UNESCO places cooperation with Hanoi as a priority in our country's program. We had fortunately developed projects, including the Hanoi Rethink and a new project beginning this year, with the financial contribution of SOVICO group, a Vietnamese private sector, to accompany and support Hanoi in implementing its action plan committed to the Global UNESCO Creative Cities Network. The ultimate goal of the UNESCO cooperation program is to support Hanoi in mobilizing the youth creativity in implementing its vision and action plan and making Hanoi an attractive destination in Southeast Asia, taking advantage of its cultural richness and diversity.

In the meantime, UNESCO stays ready and continues cooperating with and supporting Hanoi in its visionary plan to protect and revive its cultural heritage, including the long journey of research and promotion of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel, a symbol of this thousand-year cultural city.

Traditional costumes highlighted at the Hanoi Creative Festival 2023. Photo: Huy Pham/The Hanoi Times