As Vietnam's capital celebrates its 25th year as a UNESCO "City for Peace," he said that prioritizing a good quality of life for its citizens plays a key role, and he hopes that Hanoi will use this significant milestone to continue to be a peaceful, thriving and dynamic city in Southeast Asia.

The UNESCO Cities for Peace Prizes initiative was established by UNESCO's General Conference in November 1997 to recognize cities that take exemplary actions to strengthen social solidarity, improve living conditions, and foster genuine urban harmony. In essence, it aims to honor those cities making significant efforts to promote a culture of peace.

In its decision to award Hanoi the title of the Asia-Pacific region, the UNESCO General Conference highlighted the city's impressive record of successes, particularly in areas such as monument restoration, support for cultural and artistic exchanges, the promotion of traditional crafts, the improvement of health services for senior citizens, environmental protection, and the creation of green spaces. The conference also noted Hanoi's strong focus on education and training for young people, which is a key priority of its development policy.

Twenty-five years ago Hanoi’s population was at 2,5 million, now it is 3,5 times that number, with an average growth of 200.000 inhabitants every year. I think the city has had to face the challenges of rapid urbanization such as affordable housing, provision of social services, waste management, etc. – and these challenges continue to this day.  But through it all, we can see that the social fabric for which it was designated in 1999 has been maintained; the city still prioritizes a good quality of life for its citizens, still takes concrete steps to preserve and promote its culture and that of the country, and it is still a vibrant place for youth.

As you stroll through the streets of Hanoi, a sense of enchanting tranquility envelops you. The charm of Hanoi’s architecture, cultural hubs, and centuries-old craft villages leaves a lasting impression. When I visited these historical sites, I felt as if I had stepped back in time and found solace in their embrace.

It is true that many cities offer a variety of sights, sounds and tastes to experience, but in Hanoi, it is the human contact that is the strongest, the most memorable, and that is truly something very special.

I believe the designation of Hanoi as UNESCO Creative City for Design built on the City’s legacy of inclusion and tolerance as a UNESCO City for Peace. Creative City designation is a designation for the future that represents the new vision of the city, reflecting Vietnam’s objectives as an energized and engaged actor in the region and the world. The Creative City would be a treasured addition to its status as the City for Peace. The added value would be as a tool to develop Hanoi as a Creative Capital to empower its citizens, diversify its economy through the cultural industries and move towards sustainable development. This is exactly the logic that underpins the Creative City concept.

Rapid economic development presents both opportunities and challenges. As Hanoi continues to urbanize, it faces issues such as waste management, social service delivery, traffic congestion, and air quality-all of which put significant pressure on urban planning. These are common challenges faced by many cities in a rapidly urbanizing world, and Hanoi is actively working to address them.

Although I have no background in urban planning, perhaps what I could say in terms of recommendations is that, while resources and planning are obviously important, a key ingredient to success is vision – influencing the development of a city through a vision that reflects the concerns – and desires of the people of the city.

It may sound overly simplistic, but people’s happiness counts – if people love their city and share a common vision about its future, they will work for it , and this positive feeling will attract new talent and the most interesting projects, further enriching the city.

UNESCO understands that while Hanoi is rightly proud of its past, it still wants to look to the future. We believe the city has all the right ingredients to be a hub of creativity because this is the key ingredient of culture and Hanoi has a cultural soul. So we look to work with the city not just to preserve its history, but also to develop new cultural industries for a new age. We believe that this is a way for the city to maintain its exciting growth in a sustainable way, one that attracts talent to the city, provides jobs for youth and establishes Hanoi as a creative city.

As a UNESCO Representative to Vietnam, I wish to further promote the existing fruitful partnership between UNESCO and Vietnam in all of the Organization’s competence areas in order to contribute to the country’s sustainability: Communication and Information, Culture, Education, Natural and Social Sciences while also pushing forward the cross-cutting themes such as gender equality and youth participation.

I would also like to strengthen our partnership with the private sector of Vietnam more to scale up our programs throughout the country.

Vietnam is a trusted partner of UNESCO, a champion of UNESCO in many areas. That’s why I’d love to work in this country and with the partners of Vietnam.

I have been in Vietnam since January in the position of UNESCO Representative to Vietnam, almost nine months now.  Although the period is short, I have had a number of chances to witness many interesting things here. One of the very first events was the traditional cultural practice of the Vietnamese people performed at Thang Long Imperial Citadel, a UNESCO designated World Heritage Site, on the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2024.

What impressed me was the practices of offering incense to the King ancestors, worshiping the Guard of the Kitchen or making Chưng cakes at Thang Long Imperial Citadel and in some other places around the capital city.

In a context where our society is changing rapidly and traditional cultural practices are sometimes forgotten, observing such practices in one of the most spiritual places of the country at a very important moment – the Lunar New Year – gave me mixed feelings.

Firstly, I understood more about the culture of Vietnam and the frequent practices in the King Palace over the past thousands of years, which was very incredible. Secondly, I felt the values of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel, the heart of the capital city and also the heart of Vietnam in the past and now. I have to say that UNESCO was very right in declaring the Citadel a  UNESCO World Heritage Site because in my opinion, it deserves even more. The tangible and intangible heritage make the site very unique. We often feel very energized when visiting the Citadel, especially in special moments like the Lunar New Year.

I hope the values of the Thang Long Imperial Citadel will be promoted further to the wider community so that the tangible and intangible cultural practices there could be further preserved.

Thank you for your time!