ICHCAP

On 9 April 2020 in Jeonju, ICHCAP held a final session to hear the final results of its performance evaluation and the feasibility study of ICH information sharing platform conducted by the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (KCTI) for the last seven months.

The presentation was made on a video call in a continued nationwide scheme against the COVID-19 outbreak. Hosted by ICHCAP Director-General Gi Hyung KEUM, it was attended by ICH-related organizations and experts, as well as those from the Korea Culture and Tourism Institute (KCTI) which was commissioned to undertake the overall research since September 2019. The presentation first looked into the evaluation results on ICHCAP's programs and activities from 2011 through 2019 and their implications on the Asia-Pacific region, and moved on to examine the feasibility for the implementation of the ICH information-sharing platform. Then the external experts as well as the ICHCAP staffs shared their opinions about the study results.

Jeong-a RYU, senior researcher at KCTI, explained that ICHCAP's information and networking programs of the past nine years are considered to have laid firm foundations for systematic ICH safeguarding in forty-eight Member States in the Asia Pacific region. In addition, the ICH information-sharing platform (ichLinks) being developed by ICHCAP is reportedly expected to help share Member States’ ICH information and produce highly valuable ICH contents through creative curation, which would contribute to the cultural, social and economic development of the participating countries.

The platform is also anticipated to contribute to safeguarding heritage in general, as it will transform intangible heritage into tangible forms of information and contents, which can be further developed into various contents with a broad public appeal. This also means that the platform will be able to help remove the barriers for the general public to access ICH.

ICHCAP Director-General Gi Hyung KEUM conveyed an expectation that the platform will lead to a virtuous regional circle of ICH safeguarding among the Member States and also help create additional values out of rich cultural resources and possibly the involvement of the cultural content industry.

Based on the outcomes of the this presentation, ICHCAP will further review the details and collected opinions, confirm the final plan for the implementation of the platform, and execute the plan in phases.