The opening ceremony


Zhang Jing, Deputy Director-General of CRIHAP gives a speech.


Mr.Mohsin S Haqqani, Secretary of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National
Heritage of Pakistan, gives a speech at the opening ceremony.

The workshop on Community-based Inventorying of Intangible Cultural Heritage co-organized by CRIHAP and the Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage of Pakistanin close collaboration with UNESCO Islamabad Office washeld in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, from December 12 to 18, 2016.

Mr. Mohsin S Haqqani, Secretary of Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage of Pakistan, as well as Joint Secretary Mr. Mashhood Ahmad Mirza; Ms. Xu Rong, the Director-General of CRIHAP；Mr. You Yi, Counsellor of Cultural Office of Chinese Embassy in Pakistan; Mr. Ghulam Akbar Laghari, Secretary of Culture, Sports and Antiquities Department, Government of Sindh, Pakistan; Mr. Jawad Aziz, Cultural Program Specialist of UNESCO Islamabad Office attended the opening and closing ceremony and presented the certificated to the trainees for completing the workshop.

This was the second training workshop for intangible cultural heritage practitioners of Pakistan held by CRIHAP following the “Workshop on the Implementation of Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritagefor Pakistan” in Beijing in December 2015.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Haqqani expressed his sincere thanks to CRIHAP for its great support and sponsorship. Mr. Haqqani said that Pakistan has rich intangible cultural heritage resources and since Pakistan ratified the Convention in 2006, Pakistan's capacity in safeguarding intangible cultural heritage has effectively improved. At present, two elements have been inscribed on the Representative lists of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. However, due to insufficient training on capacity-building of safeguarding intangible cultural heritage in Pakistan, agencies and practitioners in this field have not fully understood the Convention and therefore cannot fulfill their tasks well.

Mr. Haqqani believed that through this training workshop participants will be able to strengthen their abilities to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage and develop relevant skills in inventorying the intangible cultural heritage, as well as effectively enhance their capacity for implementation. Mr. Zhang Jing said that CRIHAP is honored to work together with Ministry of Information, Broadcasting and National Heritage of Pakistan to safeguard the intangible cultural heritage of Pakistan and the successful hosting of this workshop is a testimony of the great friendship between China and Pakistan.