STORY: China strives to strengthen int'l cooperation on cultural heritage protection
SHOOTING TIME: June 20, 2024
DATELINE: June 20, 2024
LENGTH: 00:02:49
LOCATION: QINGDAO, China
CATEGORY: SOCIETY

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the event
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): MA XIAOLIN, Curator of Henan Museum
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ARAZ BAGRILI, Head of the International Organization Cooperation Department, Ministry for Culture of Azerbaijan
4. various of the event

STORYLINE:

The 2nd Council Meeting of the Alliance for Cultural Heritage in Asia was held in Qingdao, east China's Shandong Province, from Wednesday to Thursday, attracting around 150 attendees from 23 countries and 2 international organizations.

The alliance has been running for a year. Attendees from China and other countries to the meeting have spoken highly of China's efforts and shared their views on the future of cultural heritage protection in Asia.

SOUNDBITE 1 (Chinese): MA XIAOLIN, Curator of Henan Museum
"I have a deep feeling about this meeting. On the basis of its establishment last year, new member, observer and partner countries have been added since then, expanding our alliance, which will play a greater role in the protection, restoration and utilization of Asian cultural heritage as well as cultural exchanges."

SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ARAZ BAGRILI, Head of the International Organization Cooperation Department, Ministry for Culture of Azerbaijan
"Such important platform as Asian cultural heritage alliance is a very good opportunity to discover new avenues how we can better protect the heritage of all humanity, not only one region, but all humanity. We are very grateful to Chinese government for this initiative and are pretty much looking forward to cooperating with China and with the alliance in better safeguarding this heritage."

This meeting officially confirmed the transformation of the alliance from an international cooperation mechanism for cultural heritage into an intergovernmental international organization.

It is also the first regional intergovernmental organization in the field of cultural heritage initiated and led by China.

In the future, it will take the initiative to align with existing international organizations and mechanisms for cultural heritage, participate in common issues of cultural heritage in the international community. Also, it will build a new platform for Asian cultural heritage cooperation in key areas such as ancient civilization research, joint archaeology, historic site restoration and museum exchanges.

Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Qingdao, China.
(XHTV)