(VOVworld) - Vietnam activively participated in the 4^th session of the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which convened from June 4 to 8 in Paris. The Head of the Vietnamese delegation to UNESCO, Ambassador Duong Van Quang, said that the meeting took place in a context that UNESCO is running into financial difficulties. He added that participants at the meeting reviewed 10 years of the implementation of the convention and sought ways to raise fundings.

The meeting also discussed revisions to documents guiding the convention implementation and elected the intergovernmental committee on the convention as well as approved a resolution on a celebration programme marking 10 years of the establishment of the Convention in 2013. Ambassador Duong Van Quang said: "The General Assembly has agreed to keep both consulting agency and assisting agency to the inter-governmental committee, in stead of merging them. We also reached consensus on the number of documents to be submitted for UNESCO recognition every year. Dossiers of priority include those from countries that have never submitted documents to UNESCO before, those of heritages that need urgent preservation, and those claimed by multi-parties (from 3 countries). Countries that have the least dossiers submitted so far will also be prioritized."

With 5 intangible cultural heritages recognized by UNESCO: Central Highlands’ gong cultural space, Hue royal court music, Ca Tru singing, Quan Ho and Xoan singing, Vietnam is among active members of the 2003 Convention.