The conference was attended by Mr. Pham Dinh Phong - Deputy Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage, Mr. Tran The Thuan - Member of the City Party Committee, Director of the Department of Culture and Sports, Ms. Dinh Thi Thanh Thuy - Deputy Head of the Propaganda and Mass Mobilization Department of the City Party Committee, Mr. Nguyen Minh Nhut - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture and Sports... and nearly 250 delegates who are scientists, managers, experts, museums, relics and related units.
The report at the conference showed that the museum system of Ho Chi Minh City has had a significant development in recent years. Of the 25 museums managed by the Department of Culture and Sports, 9 museums welcomed more than 4 million visitors, of which 1.3 million were international visitors. Museums have made a strong change in displaying, editing content and applying digital technology to enhance the experience for visitors.
Currently, 7/9 affiliated museums have been ranked I and are members of ICOM, showing their increasingly increasing prestige and position in the Vietnamese museum system.
However, in addition to positive signals, the conference also pointed out many challenges. According to Dr. Le Thi Minh Ly - Member of the National Cultural Heritage Council, former Deputy Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage - the biggest bottleneck of public museums today is the issue of identity.
Many museums, despite investment, have not yet built their own style, lacking a storytelling strategy associated with local heritage.
She gave an example of the War Exhibits Museum - a unit with a large number of visitors and has been operating for many years but the development strategy is not commensurate with the potential, causing research and exhibition work to lack cohesion. This is a limitation that has prevented museums from reaching the national and international level as expected.
From this analysis, Dr. Minh Ly proposed a series of solutions such as enriching local historical content, building storytelling strategies, interpreting heritages, and developing dynamic cultural institutional models. She emphasized: "Without good human resources, there cannot be a good museum".
At the conference, Associate Professor, Dr. Dang Van Bai - former Director of the Department of Cultural Heritage agreed with the view that it is necessary to focus on building a high-quality professional team. He also emphasized the need to strengthen international cooperation and gradually pilot PPP mechanisms in the cultural sector to mobilize social resources. According to him, the transition from a budget-based mechanism to a socialization model will help heritage become an asset to regenerate resources, attract investment, instead of a prolonged financial burden.
In addition to professional contributions, delegates also focused on discussing difficulties in managing relics, preserving intangible heritage, documentary heritage and digital transformation in the heritage sector. Many opinions suggest that Ho Chi Minh City needs to promote linkages with experienced localities, while building a set of criteria to evaluate conservation efficiency associated with community service and tourism.
The conference also spent time presenting presentations revolving around the conservation orientation from now until 2030, with a vision to 2045, emphasizing the goal of improving the quality of exhibition, promoting the digitalization of artifacts, enhancing communication, heritage education and expanding international cooperation. The Organizing Committee expects the conference results to be an important premise for Ho Chi Minh City to make steady progress, preserve and promote heritage values in the context of Ho Chi Minh City developing rapidly, dynamically and integrating deeply.
