Susanne Schnuttgen, chief of the Unit for Capacity Building and Heritage Policy, Living Heritage Entity in the UNESCO, delivered the welcoming speech.

In her speech, Susanne Schnuttgen, chief of the Unit for Capacity Building and Heritage Policy, Living Heritage Entity in the UNESCO, described CRIHAP as an important UNESCO partner and thanked the centre for consistently offering assistance for the four Central Asian countries on the basis of three Training of Trainers workshops held between 2017 and 2019. Through continued training, the four Central Asia countries made headway in pushing forward ICH policy development and in grasping the methods for inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

"The training workshop offered a precious opportunity for me to learn. It also served as a sharing platform," said Nazokat Klycheva, a trainee from Tajikistan."Before this training, I only knew about ICH safeguarding work in my country. Through knowledge and experience sharing during the training, I began thinking deeper about ICH safeguarding in my country and at the same time drawing on the experiences of other countries.”

Up to now, CRIHAP has organized a total of 48 intangible cultural heritage capacity-building workshops, covering 40 countries and regions, with 1,530 direct beneficiaries.

Mr. Liang Bin, Director-General of CRIHAP, gave his speech.

Ms. Krista Pikkat, director of the UNESCO office in Almaty, gave her speech.

Ms. Aigul Khalafova, cultural project specialist from the UNESCO office in Almaty.