In a recent interview given to the People’s Army Newspaper, UNESCO Representative to Vietnam Jonathan Wallace Baker highly praised Ha Noi’s achievements in preserving and promoting its title “City for Peace,” and pointed out opportunities and challenges facing Ha Noi in creating and promoting culture of peace and creativity.
The UNESCO official said that since winning the title 25 years ago, Ha Noi has dramatically changed, especially in the scale of population (four-fold). Ha Noi has well Nkept its own values, such as social structure and extremely special peace.
As a foreigner living and working in Ha Noi, he felt himself part of this capital city and the sentiment people have for each other here.
UNESCO Representative to Vietnam Jonathan Wallace Baker
He shared that he still felt the values of Ha Noi 25 years ago. They include a huge cultural treasure, creative cultural and artistic practices that continue through generations, the spirit of solidarity, collectiveness of the locals, and the bright, radiant faces of today's citizens. He said that personally, he felt Ha Noi fully deserves the title “City for Peace.”
Asked that “in the context that conflicts are on the rise in the world, what are Ha Noi’s new roles in promoting peace,” the UNESCO representative to Vietnam recalled recent “For peace” festival in Central Vietnam, during which he deeply felt the importance of peace to not only Ha Noi but also Vietnam as a whole.
He said that Vietnam has an important voice in international community when talking about peace and the role of peace thanks to its long history of building and preserving peace. UNESCO is honored to cooperate with Ha Noi, the symbol of peace, and other partners in Vietnam to enhance peace in the world.
World music legend Kenny G in the MV "Going home" promoting culture and tourism in Ha Noi (Photo: IBG)
According to him, though the world is not completely peaceful now and conflicts still remain in many areas, turning our minds and actions towards peace is very important in today’s society.
Regarding challenges that Ha Noi has to face while protecting and promoting the value of the title “City for peace,” and other UNESCO titles in the time ahead, the UNESCO official named some which are the results of the urbanization process. They are waste management, social service provision, traffic congestion, air quality, to name but a few. He suggested the city pay attention to the vision that influences the development of the city, the key to success. He explained that the vision reflects concerns and desires of city dwellers. When people love their city, share a common vision of the future, they will work for the city and this positive feeling will attract new talents, the most interesting projects, and enrich the city’s living environment, he added.
A family happily celebrates Tet (lunar New Year) peacefully by Hoan Kiem Lake.
Talking about Ha Noi’s membership in the UNESCO creative cities network, Jonathan Wallace Baker said that when it has the title of UNESCO Creative City in the field of design, it resonates with the values of City for Peace. The meaning and goal of the "City for Peace" award is to recognize cities that have a real role in building and promoting peace, and the investment strategies in cultural and social fields to send the image of a city for peace to the international community. Twenty five years ago, Ha Noi did this and those values are still present in Ha Noi today. The combination is for future Ha Noi, expressing the city's new vision, reflecting Vietnam's goal as a dynamic and cohesive subject in the region and the world. The title of “creative city” will be a valuable addition to the capital city’s status as a “City for peace.” He emphasized that added value will be a tool to develop Ha Noi into a creative capital to empower people, diversify the economy through cultural industries and move towards sustainable development.
He expressed his belief that Ha Noi is capable of becoming a creative city. He stressed that UNESCO wishes to cooperate with Ha Noi to not only preserve the city’s history but also develop new cultural industries for the new era. That is the way for Ha Noi to maintain its interesting growth sustainably while attracting talents, generating jobs for youths and building Ha Noi into a creative city.
Translated by Chung Anh
