AsemconnectVietnam -  Culture must be considered a pillar of sustainable development, aside from economic, environmental and social aspects, heard a symposium in Hanoi on March 1.

The seminar, attracting nearly 100 scientists, researchers and culture officials, was organised by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the National Cultural Heritage Council.
Participants said there remain limited awareness of the role of culture in sustainable development in Vietnam. Culture has yet to really be regarded as a development resource, and it is still dwarfed by other factors in the sustainable development strategy.
Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Huynh Vinh Ai said Vietnam is home to 40,000 tangible heritage and 60,000 intangible heritage, and the problem is how to manage and optimise them in an effective manner while developing new values for those heritage so as to enrich the heritage treasure.
Culture and heritage will become a priceless and endless resource if they are preserved and used scientifically, he noted.
Participants said instead of simply listing and compiling dossiers of heritage, it is necessary to quantify heritage value in order to devise scientific preservation and exploitation strategies. The whole political system, not only culture agencies, must engage in this work.
Community-based heritage preservation and development are a global trend and a solution for sustainably optimising heritage value since culture is an asset of a community, they said, adding that when heritage values benefit the community, local residents will proactively uphold heritage.
Vietnam has been expanding community-based tourism which is a right development orientation, experts said, asking for more high-value products and long-term strategies in this type of tourism.
Source: VNA