Travel to Laos: Management of two world heritage sites in Laos

(From Lao cultural magazine by Bounthavy Champathong) - Travel to Laos. After Luang Prabang town was inscribed to be a world heritage site on 2 December 1995 and Watphou was also declared as a world heritage site on 9 November 2001, the Lao government activity implements the international Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and National Heritage and this action is relevant to the guideline on this convention implementation.

For Luang Prabag town, the Government signed the cooperation agreement with Ville de Shinon, which is the world heritage town in France to together study and formulate the master plan for conserving and expanding the value of world heritage sites. With the fund granted by French Development Agency the Government established the world heritage office and hurried to register preserved houses and imposed the rule on maintenance and restoration of some old houses. It trained technical officers and created a model restoring old buildings and sites under the preservation purpose. This plan is called:"Master Plan for Preserving and Expanding the World Heritage Value." In 2002 the Government approved to UNESCO the Master plan for Preserving and Expanding the World Heritage Value and set up the measure on implementing this plan.

For Wat Phou Champasak, the Government implemented the master plan for managing Wat Phou Champasak and presented it to UNESCO. This plan clearly determines the territory and purpose of conservation and the rule is imposed to fulfill this purpose. There is also the measure on implementation. The fund was gained from the government of Japan(JICA) to build the embankment system to prevent water flowing from the mountain. The museum at the world heritage site was built and technical officers were trained and assistance from the French government was gained to comprehensively educate.

Today, The Government set up the national heritage committee. Its President is Mr.Somsavat Lengsavad, Deputy Minister and Standing Member of the Government. In addition to that, the office of the two world heritage sites is set up to implement the protection task and coordinate with other organizations.

The future plan is to improve the work preserving the world heritage town in Luang Prabang. Previously, the conference of the international heritage committee was held in Luang Prabang and adopted resolutions for determining the future work as follows:

To coordinate with other sectors to carry out the conservation, which is harmonious with development; Don't let development to destroy the world heritage management but it must facilitate development.

Strictly fulfill the promises of the Lao PDR as a party to the convention to UNESCO. To be a model and preserve uniqueness of Laos to attract assistance from the world community.

To decide to get rid of weakness in the work implementation at the heritage preservation site. To implement the procedure of the preservation plan and expat the heritage value to more educate and train, upgrade knowledge and understanding of masses and enable people to gain Honoria and benefits from the national heritage.

Moreover, it is to prepare documents as data about the two world heritage sites in Laos; including advocacy, which is assigned to provincial authorities. In order to implement work, the local committee shall be avialable to formulate the detailed management plan and regularly coordinate with the national committee through the secretariat. The ministry of Information and Cultural is assigned to supervise, set up and implement the national heritage fund.