The cultural industry development should be combined with cultural diversity protection, proposed officials attending the Conference on Cultures and Civilizations of Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing Thursday.

Cultural diversity protection of various countries and regions is the basis for the existence of cultural diversity, they noted.

Permanent Secretary of the Thai Culture Ministry Chakrarot Chitrabongs said Thailand instituted a state cultural policy in 1981, aiming at promoting the culture of various ethnic minorities and native culture, which enabled Thai people to get along well with each other and treasure their multiculturalism.

Since 2001, Thailand has been devoted to multicultural industry development to create valuable cultural products, thus promoting economic development with cultural innovation, he said.

Japanese Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Yamaha Inaba also briefed the ASEM on how Japan protects its cultural diversity.

Inaba said Japan has made up various rules and laws concerning the protection of cultural diversity, including the basic law on promoting culture and art in 1950. Japan is ready to join in the efforts of international cultural diversity protection.

Lee Chang-dong, minister of culture and tourism of the Republic of Korea (ROK), said that the ROK has launched intangible cultural heritage protection this year, in a bid to enhance mutual understanding, dissolve prejudice and preserve cultural diversity.

He proposed that all the ASEM members jointly create an Asian-European cultural information network for better cultural protection and exchanges.

French Minister of Culture and Communication Jean-Jacques Aillagon said the achievements of France in the cultural industry is obvious to all, especially in the film and museum industries. Acommon prosperous future requires preserved diversity including culture, language, tradition and history, he said, noting that no culture can develop in isolation.

To protect and promote cultural diversity is an essential principle of the European Union (EU), said Ambassador of the European Commission Delegation in China Claus Ebermann. He said that cultural diversity has already been the core content of the integration process of Europe under the European Community treaty.

He said the EU hopes that countries can thoroughly discuss cultural diversity during the meeting and strengthen cultural exchanges and cooperation with developing countries, especially with Asia.

The two-day conference is the first cultural ministers conference under the ASEM framework and is also the largest-scale cultural ministers conference held in China.
 
(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2003)