Mr. Darasack RATSAVONG
First Secretary for Education and Culture,
Embassy of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
For sustainable development beside developing country towards industrialization and modernization, the Laos government focuses on the protection and preservation of the national culture both, tangible and intangible. At present, Laos is a signatory of 3 UNESCO Conventions.
At the national level, Laos has undertaken quite a few measures for ICH protection, including formulating related national policies, setting up ICH safeguarding mechanism, National Legislation to cover the cultural heritage protection., and has carried out series of ICH Related Activities such as National folklore ethnic festival, Elephant Festival in Sayabuly Province, Buddhist Related Calendar Festivities, Lao New Year (or water festival) in Luang Prabang, Boat racing Festival, Alms possessions, Shadow puppets, and Phra Lak Phra Lam Dance (Ramayana dance), etc.
Meanwhile, Laos has maintained good cooperation with other countries and organizations, including Intangible Cultural Heritage Centre for Asia-Pacific (ICHCAP), Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea (CHA), UNESCO and its affiliated offices.