Inadequate investment
It is undeniable that in recent years, culture in general and cultural heritage in particular across the country have received more attention, many heritages and historical cultural relics in localities have been recognized and honored at different levels, many relics have been cared for and restored, promoting their values. However, the attention and investment in cultural heritage and historical relics in localities is generally still very limited, not commensurate with their status.
Take an example from Hue - one of the localities with the most cultural heritages and historical revolutionary relics in the country. According to a report from this locality, in 25 years (1993-2018), the total budget investment to preserve the entire complex of Hue ancient capital relics - the largest relic site in Vietnam today, a special national relic, a world heritage site only reached 1,600 billion VND (of which the central budget accounted for 40%, the local budget 60%). This is a figure that can be said to be too modest compared to the level of public investment in many other fields in the same period of this locality.
However, the figure of 1,600 billion VND for the conservation of the Hue Monuments Complex is a dream number for the remaining 123 recognized historical and cultural relics (not to mention hundreds of other relics that have been inventoried), currently under the management of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thua Thien - Hue province.
Dr. Phan Thanh Hai, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thua Thien - Hue province, said that each year, these 123 relics only receive support to prevent relic degradation of about 1.5-2 billion VND and there is almost no other investment. And this is also the common situation of most other provinces and cities in our country today.
The lack of resources for cultural investment in localities has led to the serious degradation of many relics, and many traditional architectural works that have not been classified have literally disappeared due to the whirlwind of urbanization.
A typical example is the system of traditional garden houses and stilt houses in Hue. In 1997-1998, the Hue Department of Culture collaborated with Showa Women's University (Japan) to investigate and document more than 700 stilt houses in Thua Thien - Hue. However, after only 20 years, less than 30% of these beautiful and valuable architectural works remain!
New hope for small-scale monuments
Exactly 10 years ago, on June 9, 2014, the Party Central Committee issued Resolution 33-NQ/TW on building and developing Vietnamese culture and people to meet the requirements of sustainable national development. In the first section of the "Viewpoint" section, it was affirmed: "Culture is the spiritual foundation of society, the goal and driving force for sustainable national development. Culture must be placed on par with economics, politics and society".
However, the reality of investment in culture in general and cultural heritage and historical relics in particular over the past 10 years shows that Resolution 33-NQ/TW has not really come into life. Especially since 2015, when the national target program on culture with an annual investment of about 300 billion VND ended, there has been no replacement program since then. This makes the already difficult work of heritage conservation even more difficult.
Therefore, the National Assembly's vote to approve the "Resolution of the National Assembly on investment policy for the national target program on cultural development for the 2025-2035 period" as well as the resolution that the total capital to implement the national target program on cultural development for the 2025-2030 period is at least VND 122,250 billion is very good news.
Of course, the figure of 122,250 billion VND spent for 10 years also causes much controversy, especially when compared with the goal of building Vietnamese cultural centers abroad or by 2030, 100% of provinces and cities will have a Cultural Center, 80% of districts will have a Cultural - Sports Center that meets standards. But this is certainly a "lifeline", a hope that can be said to be the only one for many - thousands of small-scale relics and constructions that account for the majority of the country that have been and are being degraded, when the National Assembly's resolution sets the target of 95% of special national relics and 70% of national relics to be restored in the next 10 years!
