August 18-20, Solo City, Indonesia ? the Organizational Committee ofthe International Conference of Euro-Asia World Heritage Cities heldits meeting.

Secretary General of UCLG Euro-Asia Rassikh Sagitov took part in this meeting. The Committee work groups have conducted serious preparatory work for this international event:  over 400 invitations have been sent out to expected participants, an informational page has been created online, a few announcement banners have been placed on the websites of UNESCO, UCLG, OWHC and other sites, a preliminary conference program has been composed and published.

A special attention was paid to the scientific part of the conference: themes concerning the urgent global tendencies and meeting the needs of World Heritage cities have been selected for discussion. The role of a key speaker at the first conference session has been given to Mr. Rieks Smeets ? the author of UNESCO World Convention on safeguarding of intangible heritage and Chief of Intangible Cultural Heritage section, UNESCO. Also Mr. Eugenio Yunis ? one of the directors of World Tourism Organization and an outstanding world specialist in tourism development - confirmed his participation as a key speaker in the second conference session. There will be OWHC President Marcelo Cabrera, OWHC Secretary General Denis Ricard, and Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Indonesia Jero Vacik among the participants.  

The Organizational Committee has prepared a rich cultural program. A great expo of the intangible heritage of Indonesia will take place in the framework of the conference. The expo will present such famous symbols of Indonesian culture as batik, kris dagger, traditional theatre wayang, gamelan band, and traditional cuisine.    

The conference will include a poster session where the cities will have an opportunity to present posters with the information about projects dedicated to preservation of cultural heritage and development of tourism.

Also a number of important events will be held during the conference: an ethnic music fest, traditional carnival in Solo City, UN-Habitat seminar, and a meeting of the Council of the Association of Local Governments of Indonesia.

The conference has given an impulse to creation of a brand of Solo: ?Solo ? the spirit of Java?. This event is included in the national program ?Visit Indonesia in 2008?. 

20.08.2008

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