Workshop focuses on developing Mekong region
Government officials from Mekong sub-region countries Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand are in Luang Prabang, Lao PDR, for a training workshop from Oct. 15 to 20.
The “Mekong Sub-regional Capacity Building Workshop on Cultural Heritage,” organized by the ASEAN-Korea Centre, aims to provide a platform for national training of cultural heritage specialist guides, contributing to developing sustainable tourism. Lao PDR’s Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and the United Nations Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Bangkok office is co-hosting the event.
“As world cultural heritage is a key component of sustainable tourism, efforts of the government and government-related organizations in preserving and managing cultural heritage are imperative,” ASEAN-Korea Centre Secretary General Kim Young-sun said.
“The Mekong sub-region is important as more than half of ASEAN’s World Cultural Heritage sites are dispersed in the region. I hope this workshop can strengthen the competency of training programs for cultural heritage speciali st guides in the Mekong sub-region, thereby contributing to developing sustainable tourism for the Mekong sub-region countries.”
The U.N. has designated this year the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.
Professor Sharif Shams Imon, from IFT, and Ong Chin Ee, from the National University of Singapore (NUS), who are among the developers of UNESCO’s cultural heritage specialist guides training module, and Steven Schipani, from ADB, a specialist on tourism in the Mekong sub-region, will host sessions on key issues in cultural heritage tourism using the UNESCO core module.
The organization said participants will also hear presentations on training programs in each country and take part in discussions and cross-country exercises.
Following the lectures, the lecturers and participants will visit cultural heritage sites in Luang Prabang, where they can visualize and implement the information they have learned about preserving, managing, promoting and interpreting cultural heritage sites.
In August, the organization hosted an e-commerce workshop for Greater Mekong Subregional (GMS) countries with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Seoul.
The “Capacity Building Workshop for Greater Mekong Subregional (GMS) Cross-border E-commerce” shared Korea’s development experience and expertise in the e-commerce industry with public and private stakeholders from the GMS countries. Representatives from Amazon and Barterfli gave lectures on such topics as “Overview of E-commerce in Asia-Pacific” and “Market Trends, Business Model and Consumer Behavior of Korea’s E-commerce Industry.”
Starting this year, the ASEAN-Korea Centre has developed its capacity-building program, formerly the Product Development Workshop, into the Trade Facilitation Workshop that covers wider areas important for the acceleration of trade, such as utilization of the ASEAN-Korea free trade agreement.
The ASEAN-Korea Centre is an intergovernmental organization established in 2009 with an aim to promote exchanges among Korea and the 10 ASEAN member states.