Macau has joined the Organisation of World Heritage Cities (OWHC), the local government announced yesterday.
According to a statement by the government, an "affiliation ceremony" was held via video-conferencing in Macau yesterday.
During the ceremony, the OWHC presented a certificate of membership to the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR), which was represented by Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Elsie Ao Ieong U.
The statement pointed out that after Suzhou and Dujiangyan, Macau has now become the third Chinese city to join the organisation.
"Macau's membership of the OWHC will facilitate access to international information on World Heritage preservation and participation in relevant events learning from one another's experience with respect to the preservation of World Heritage properties, thereby further raising Macau's international profile as a World Heritage city," the statement said.
According to the statement, the ceremony was presided over by OWHC Vice President Huang Yong.
The statement quoted Ao Ieong as saying that the "Historic Centre of Macau" inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2005 "is not only testimony to the city's historical development, but also a crucial cultural resource that lays the cultural ground for....the city's future advancement."
The OWHC is an international non-profit and non-governmental organisation (NGO) founded in 1993 in Fez, Morocco, which aims to facilitate the implementation of the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.
The statement noted that this year marks the 15th anniversary of the inscription of the Historic Centre of Macau, and the Macau Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC) is hosting a string of celebratory events to promote the concept of "Protecting and Appreciating Our World Heritage Together".
