China was elected on Thursday by member states of the United
Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
as a member of its inter-governmental committee to safeguard
intangible cultural heritages.
The first meeting of its 45 member states at the Convention for
the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritages, which started on
June 27, closed on Thursday in Paris, after appointing an 18-member
inter-governmental committee.
China was elected to the committee with 40 votes and would
participate in discussing and nominating the list of intangible
cultural heritage items.
"Intangible cultural heritage" is defined by UNESCO as the
practices, representations, expressions, knowledge and skills that
communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as
part of their cultural heritages.
China's delegation, comprising officials from China's Culture
Ministry, Education Ministry and Foreign Affairs Ministry, as well
as Chinese representatives in UNESCO, was headed by the deputy
Secretary-General of China's State Council, Chen Jinyu, who met
with Koichiro Matsuura, the Secretary-General of UNESCO, on
Wednesday.
As a member of the inter-governmental committee, China would do
more to further strengthen its efforts to safeguard the intangible
cultural heritages and reinforce international cooperation to that
end, the delegation said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 30, 2006)
