The Department of Cultural Heritage under the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in coordination with International Information and Networking Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (ICHCAP) has just organised a 2023 Southeast Asia sub-regional conference in Da Nang on protecting intangible cultural heritage entitled ‘Common intangible cultural heritage and experiences in Southeast Asia.

The conference took place in face-to-face and online formats, with the participation of a large number of delegates from all countries.

Within the framework of the conference, experts and scientists discussed topics such as research on common heritage in Southeast Asia and finding measures to protect heritage; experience of international cooperation through common heritage and challenges; current status of efforts to protect intangible cultural heritage and national goals, the introduction of information on national inventories of intangible cultural heritage.

It focused on identifying issues of intangible cultural heritage in Southeast Asia, as a basis for establishing cooperation in building a multinational dossier to request UNESCO to register it on the intangible cultural heritage list in need of urgent protection or a representative list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity, contributing to creating outstanding cultural diversity and connectivity in the region and helping to build the foundation for different common intangible cultural heritage.

The event was also an opportunity for Da Nang to approach principled issues in UNESCO's 2003 Convention on protecting and promoting intangible cultural values as well as vivid practices and directions, measures, and techniques to promote the city's cultural heritage.

Reporting by X.DUNG – Translating by A.THU