Cambodia to Submit Battambang City’s Application for UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network
- By Phoung Vantha
- June 26, 2021 6:12 PM
The city’s nomination will be in the Gastronomy Tourism category
PHNOM PENH--Cambodia will submit a nomination file to UNESCO in the coming days to include Battambang City in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN).
In an interview on June 26, Ministry of Tourism spokesperson Chuk Chumno said that the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the Battambang Provincial Administration teams have prepared all required documents that, after a final check, will be sent online to the UNESCO head office by the end of June, which is the deadline for applications.
The UCCN was created in 2004 to promote cooperation among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. The 246 cities currently part of the network are meant to work together towards a common objective: to place creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development plans and cooperating at the international level.
In Battambang City’s nomination file, the Cambodian authorities are requesting that Battambang be included in the category of “Gastronomy Tourism.” Based on expert's assessment, Battambang has a rich cuisine with a variety of dishes that have the potential of attracting international attention, said Minister of Tourism Thong Khon in comments posted on the ministry’s Facebook page on June 26.
If Battambang City’s application is approved, Cambodia will be allowed to use the logo of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network to promote the city on the international stage and within the cities’ network, he said.
In ASEAN, there currently are six cities that are part of the UCCN. They are Bandung and Pekalongan in Indonesia; Baguio in the Philippines; the city-state of Singapore; and Chiang Mai and Phuket in Thailand.
