The recognition of world cultural and natural heritage sites hasconsiderably contributed to the economic growth of each locality,helping generate jobs for thousands of workers. However, theconservation and management of recognised sites has revealed manylimitations, the Vietnam Economic News reported.
Deputy Ministerof Culture, Sports and Tourism Dang Thi Bich Lien said that worldcultural and natural heritage sites in Vietnam not only have spiritualvalues but also serve as important resources for sustainablesocio-economic development.
Data from the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) show thatmore than 1 billion tourists visit cultural heritage sites each year.
InVietnam, world cultural and natural heritage sites have contributed torapid increases in the number of tourists to localities, bringing inconsiderable economic benefits. Ha Long Bay or relics in the old capitalof Hue attracted just several thousand tourists annually in the past,but now they attract more than 2 million visitors each year, earninghundreds of billions of dong from the sale of entrance tickets.
Statisticsshow that the Hoi An Old Quarter received 1.5 million tourists in 2013,earning 65 billion VND from ticket sales. The Phong Nha-Ke BangNational Park’s tourism revenue reached 23.6 billion VND last year whilethe My Son relics earned over 20 billion VND.
Obviously, worldcultural and natural heritage sites have considerably contributed topromoting the development of the tourism and service sectors as well asthe economic growth of localities and the community economy. Therefore,many localities have listed world heritage sites among key factorsfostering their long-term development.
However, the lack ofcoordiantion is a big problem related to the management of worldheritage sites in Vietnam. Notably, the overlapping management betweendifferent ministries and sectors has made it difficult to deal withproblems which arise from practice.
Nguyen The Hung, Director ofthe Agency for Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture, Sportsand Tourism, said that stipulations and regulations on the management,conservation and enhancement of world cultural and natural heritagesites in Vietnam remained inadequate and inconsistent.
So arepolicies and mechanisms applied to manage and utilise heritage sites.Some heritage sites such as Hoi An and My Son have not worked out masterplans for heritage management based on the Operational Guidelines forthe Implementation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Some otherheritage sites such as the Thang Long Imperial Citadel and relics in theOld Capital of Hue have yet to put in place suitable regulationspertaining to the management, conservation and enhancement of heritagesites.
Le Trung Hoa, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee ofDuy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province, is a member of the My SonManagement Board of Relics and Tourism. He said that the management ofheritage sites has revealed the overlap between the district and higherlevels in the fields of international cooperation, project preparationand appeal for investment.
Sharing this opinion, arepresentative of the Management Board of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang NationalPark said that the park was managed by the People’s Committee of QuangBinh province. However, operations of the park’s management board aresimultaneously managed by the provincial Department of Agriculture andRural Development and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.“This takes us too much time to deal with arising problems,” he added.
Thelack of coordination in management has led to some other problems.Specifically, the coordination between management boards/centres andstate authorities from relevant sectors in dealing with problems whicharise from practice remains loose; localities where world heritage sitesare situated still apply different regulations in managing and usingincomes from tourism services. Their expenditure on tourism also showsdifferences between one province and another.
Deputy MinisterLien said that the only solution to all these problems is clarifying theresponsibilities of management authorities at each level andmaintaining their effective coordination. The Ministry of Culture,Sports and Tourism will check and make necessary supplements andadjustments to existing regulations in this field.
Pham ThuyDuong, head of the Management Board of Ha Long Bay, said that as a worldnatural heritage site, Ha Long Bay had significantly contributed to thedevelopment of Quang Ninh province.
However, to bring into play thevalues of this heritage site so that it can better contribute topromoting socio-economic development of Quang Ninh province and create afulcrum for the tourism sector of the whole country, in the time tocome, the Management Board of Ha Long Bay will continue its efforts toconserve and enhance the bay’s values in a sustainable manner, seriouslyfollowing recommendations of the World Heritage Committee and the WorldHeritage Convention.
The board has pledged to conservethe integrity and outstanding universal value of the heritage site toappeal for the international community’s support for its conservationefforts.
Nguyen Chi Trung from the Hoi An Centre for CulturalHeritage Management and Conservation - one of the most successful unitsin the field of heritage conservation - said that in the process ofmanaging, conserving and bringing into play the values of heritagesites, it was necessary to identify and preserve specific values ofrelics and heritage sites in each locality because economic losses canbe recovered but cultural and natural heritage can hardly be restoredonce they are infringed.
He added that in 2014, the People’sCommittee of Quang Nam province would submit to the Prime Minister aproposal for a special funding mechanism for Hoi An so that it coulddevelop component projects of the master plan for conservation andenhancement of the Hoi An World Cultural Heritage in combination withurban and tourism development in the period from 2012-2025. Theimplementation of this plan will help Quang Nam province conserve andenhance in a sustainable manner the values of Hoi An as a world culturalheritage site.-VNA
Deputy Ministerof Culture, Sports and Tourism Dang Thi Bich Lien said that worldcultural and natural heritage sites in Vietnam not only have spiritualvalues but also serve as important resources for sustainablesocio-economic development.
Data from the United NationsEducational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) show thatmore than 1 billion tourists visit cultural heritage sites each year.
InVietnam, world cultural and natural heritage sites have contributed torapid increases in the number of tourists to localities, bringing inconsiderable economic benefits. Ha Long Bay or relics in the old capitalof Hue attracted just several thousand tourists annually in the past,but now they attract more than 2 million visitors each year, earninghundreds of billions of dong from the sale of entrance tickets.
Statisticsshow that the Hoi An Old Quarter received 1.5 million tourists in 2013,earning 65 billion VND from ticket sales. The Phong Nha-Ke BangNational Park’s tourism revenue reached 23.6 billion VND last year whilethe My Son relics earned over 20 billion VND.
Obviously, worldcultural and natural heritage sites have considerably contributed topromoting the development of the tourism and service sectors as well asthe economic growth of localities and the community economy. Therefore,many localities have listed world heritage sites among key factorsfostering their long-term development.
However, the lack ofcoordiantion is a big problem related to the management of worldheritage sites in Vietnam. Notably, the overlapping management betweendifferent ministries and sectors has made it difficult to deal withproblems which arise from practice.
Nguyen The Hung, Director ofthe Agency for Cultural Heritage under the Ministry of Culture, Sportsand Tourism, said that stipulations and regulations on the management,conservation and enhancement of world cultural and natural heritagesites in Vietnam remained inadequate and inconsistent.
So arepolicies and mechanisms applied to manage and utilise heritage sites.Some heritage sites such as Hoi An and My Son have not worked out masterplans for heritage management based on the Operational Guidelines forthe Implementation of the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Some otherheritage sites such as the Thang Long Imperial Citadel and relics in theOld Capital of Hue have yet to put in place suitable regulationspertaining to the management, conservation and enhancement of heritagesites.
Le Trung Hoa, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee ofDuy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province, is a member of the My SonManagement Board of Relics and Tourism. He said that the management ofheritage sites has revealed the overlap between the district and higherlevels in the fields of international cooperation, project preparationand appeal for investment.
Sharing this opinion, arepresentative of the Management Board of the Phong Nha-Ke Bang NationalPark said that the park was managed by the People’s Committee of QuangBinh province. However, operations of the park’s management board aresimultaneously managed by the provincial Department of Agriculture andRural Development and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism.“This takes us too much time to deal with arising problems,” he added.
Thelack of coordination in management has led to some other problems.Specifically, the coordination between management boards/centres andstate authorities from relevant sectors in dealing with problems whicharise from practice remains loose; localities where world heritage sitesare situated still apply different regulations in managing and usingincomes from tourism services. Their expenditure on tourism also showsdifferences between one province and another.
Deputy MinisterLien said that the only solution to all these problems is clarifying theresponsibilities of management authorities at each level andmaintaining their effective coordination. The Ministry of Culture,Sports and Tourism will check and make necessary supplements andadjustments to existing regulations in this field.
Pham ThuyDuong, head of the Management Board of Ha Long Bay, said that as a worldnatural heritage site, Ha Long Bay had significantly contributed to thedevelopment of Quang Ninh province.
However, to bring into play thevalues of this heritage site so that it can better contribute topromoting socio-economic development of Quang Ninh province and create afulcrum for the tourism sector of the whole country, in the time tocome, the Management Board of Ha Long Bay will continue its efforts toconserve and enhance the bay’s values in a sustainable manner, seriouslyfollowing recommendations of the World Heritage Committee and the WorldHeritage Convention.
The board has pledged to conservethe integrity and outstanding universal value of the heritage site toappeal for the international community’s support for its conservationefforts.
Nguyen Chi Trung from the Hoi An Centre for CulturalHeritage Management and Conservation - one of the most successful unitsin the field of heritage conservation - said that in the process ofmanaging, conserving and bringing into play the values of heritagesites, it was necessary to identify and preserve specific values ofrelics and heritage sites in each locality because economic losses canbe recovered but cultural and natural heritage can hardly be restoredonce they are infringed.
He added that in 2014, the People’sCommittee of Quang Nam province would submit to the Prime Minister aproposal for a special funding mechanism for Hoi An so that it coulddevelop component projects of the master plan for conservation andenhancement of the Hoi An World Cultural Heritage in combination withurban and tourism development in the period from 2012-2025. Theimplementation of this plan will help Quang Nam province conserve andenhance in a sustainable manner the values of Hoi An as a world culturalheritage site.-VNA
