Cultural Property Protection: Int’l Conference on Cultural Property Protection Held

International Conference on Cultural Property Protection: The Prevention of the Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Properties: An ASEAN Perspective organized by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia was held on September 7 via Video Conferencing System and was attended by Myanmar delegation led by the Union Minister for Religious Affairs and Culture U Ko Ko.

As the first phase of conference, the international plenary meeting and senior officials’ meeting was held at 8 a.m. local time and attended by the senior officials from ASEAN member countries, experts on cultural heritage preservation and representatives included the experts on cultural heritage preservation from the Non-Government Organizations. During the meeting, the challenges encountered in the prevention and promotions of cultural heritages were shared and the views on the opportunity of cooperation for the mitigation of illicit trading the cultural heritages were exchanged. 

Then, the draft statement to be approved and draft Media statement to be released by Cambodia was discussed during the meeting of ASEAN cultural and fine arts ministers. In the afternoon, as second phase of conference, the ASEAN Ministers level meeting was held and the ministers discussed the completion of implementing anti-illicit trading of cultural heritages, ongoing works, works to be implemented, challenges facing and beneficial fields that can be acquired by collaborating with international organizations.

At the meeting, the union minister U Ko Ko discussed Myanmar is a country rich with the cultural heritages in South East Asia, preserving those systematically and implementing the sustainability and socio-economic development.

Myanmar singed the UNIDROIT convention regarding with stealing and illicit exported cultural items to join hands with the UN member countries to sustain, prevent and preserve the cultural heritages in line with the international standards and norms. During the international conference, the panel discussions of international archeological experts from 5th to 6th of September organized by the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts of Cambodia were held and attended by the expert delegation led by the director general of department of archeology and national museum under the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture, it’s learnt.