" ‘Intangible cultural heritage’, or 'living heritage' has a very important significance in life. Living cultural heritage creates opportunities for communities and individuals to have a sense of identity and continuity; promotes connections in society, respects cultural diversity and human creativity, thus helping the community and individuals connect with each other in the big world,” said Le Thi Thu Hien, director of the Department of Cultural Heritage.

Donna McGowan, director of the British Council in Vietnam, said Vietnam has a valuable treasure of intangible cultural heritage such as traditional handicraft products, rituals, performing arts and indigenous knowledge deeply rooted in the national culture. With more and more cultural values recognized both domestically and internationally, the field of cultural heritage has been witnessing active changes, benefiting practitioners and community members who contribute an important role to sustainable development.

A study of the British Council found that people in many localities in Vietnam believe that preserving cultural heritage is an abstract concept, and that this is the task of state agencies and non-government organizations. McGowan said it is necessary to find strategies and identify challenges and opportunities in using intangible heritage to obtain sustainable development goals.

Iain Frew, the British Ambassador to Vietnam, praised the values of tangible and intangible heritage in Vietnam. More and more Vietnamese cultural heritages have been recognized domestically and internationally. Vietnam is seeking the way to take full advantage of the values to ensure that cultural heritage will become the center of sustainable development.

When the community’s awareness is improved and people raise ideas about activities to conserve and promote heritage value, this will lead to a good future for cultural heritage. More importantly, the direct participation of the community will help create new opportunities that bring benefits and livelihoods to them.

Pham Cao Quy from the Cultural Heritage Department said intangible cultural heritage exists inseparably from people. It can be recognized through human’s performances and artifacts. It is inherited, preserved, practiced, created and passed on through generations. This means that heritage only exists if the community has a sense of identity and continuity, connecting the past with the present and the future.

“Protecting and promoting intangible cultural heritage value is protecting people, creating conditions so that people (artisans, practitioners, communities) have the best and most suitable conditions to practice heritage,” he said.

“The policies related to heritage must be built and implemented with the human being put at the center,” Quy added.

According to Nguyen Thi Thu Trang from the Cultural Heritage Department, as high- intellectual humane resources, cultural heritage can serve the development of cultural industries, especially cultural and heritage tourism.

Based on national cultural heritage, the tourism industry can create cultural services that turn heritage into a special commodity. Heritage tourism also creates sustainable livelihoods for communities around cultural heritage and tourist destinations.

In recent years, the term 'heritage economics' has appeared as a new trend in the market economy. This is probably one of the efforts to attach heritage to socio-economic development policies.

In other countries, in addition to development projects, people have begun paying attention to protecting cultural heritage from the perspective of urban heritage and heritage economics.

Cultural heritage can only be preserved when it is used to serve the goal of comprehensive development of the Vietnamese people. Cultural heritage must be preserved as a living organism in the life of the community and create sustainable livelihoods for the community.

Trang stressed that big goals can only be obtained on the basis of a perfect legal system, mechanisms and policies created by the state and supported by the entire society.

Meanwhile, the British Council suggested the establishment of small museums in communities, with traditional costumes, production tools, ceremonial objects, musical instruments, and homemade household products.

The community and heritage holders must be put at the center, because protecting living heritage is the most important thing to build a resilient and sustainable society for the future.

Tinh Le