Specialists to meet on safeguarding Cambodia’s world heritage Angkor Wat

PHNOM PENH, Dec. 3 — The International Coordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC) will convene its 19th plenary session on Dec. 5-6 in Siem Reap province, according to a press release from the UNESCO-Cambodia on Monday.

The ICC has convened regularly twice a year to consistently follow up with all operations being carried out on the site, the press release said.

The meeting will be opened by Sok An, deputy prime minister and minister for the Council of Ministers and Anne Lemaistre, UNESCO Representative to Cambodia.

On the first day of the meeting, there will be a tour for the ICC-Angkor participants to see the hydraulic structures and the urban heritage of Siem Reap, it said.

The tour will highlight the work done in the past years to prevent Angkor and Siem Reap from flooding and efforts to preserve Siem Reap’s urban heritage.

On the next day, there will be a number of presentations by specialists, covering issues of conservation, archaeological research, tourism, and community development. Particularly, discussions will be held on various themes related to Angkor and its population, it said.

Angkor archeological park was inscribed in the World Heritage list on Dec. 14, 1992. After the enlistment, the ICC was established. It is the international mechanism for coordinating all assistance extended by different countries and organizations.

The Angkor archeological park is the country’s largest cultural tourism destination; it is located in Siem Reap province, some 315 kilometers northwest of Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

According to the latest figures from the Tourism Ministry, the site attracted 1.64 million foreign visitors in the first ten months of this year, up 28 percent compared with the same period last year.

Sourced: nzweek