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Wednesday, 11 May 2011

Malaysia Offers Service To Protect World's Cultural Heritage

From Leslean Arshad 

PARIS, May 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia, with various credentials in cultural heritage under its belt, is keen to offer its service towards the protection and preservation of the world's cultural heritage.

Deputy Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, when addressing the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) executive board meeting on Tuesday, said that Malaysia wished to play a more important role as a member of the World Heritage Committee, if elected this year.

Applauding Unesco's commitment to the preservation of world heritage, Muhyiddin shared the forum's view that joint responsibility would be required to ensure the heritage sites were protected and sustained as a symbol of peace, dialogue and reconciliation.

"Malaysia is therefore keen to offer her services towards the protection and preservation of the World's cultural heritage for the betterment of our future generation," he said.

He said Malaysia had many trained experts in the field of archeological, natural and cultural heritage protection and management where their expertise could be tapped to enhance the protection of the world's cultural heritage.

He told the forum that Malaysia too had been actively promoting and preserving its natural and cultural heritage as mandated by its National Heritage Act, modelled after several Heritage Acts including the convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage 1972.

Apart from that, Malaysia had also earned the Unesco Memory of the World recognition, World Heritage Site inscriptions and is on the register of the representative list of Intangible Cultural Heritage Convention, 2003.

In his address which also touched on Education for All (EFA), Muhyiddin had reiterated Malaysia's strong support for Unesco's efforts at widening access to quality education by improving the global coordination of EFA and strengthening international partnership.

Muhyiddin, who is also the Education Minister, told the conference that the Malaysian government was currently implementing comprehensive measures to improve educational outcomes by making widening access to quality education a key element in its Government Transformation Programme.

He shared with the forum Malaysia's National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for education in relation to efforts towards widening access to early education by increasing the pre-school enrolment rate, enhancing student literacy and numeric skills, creating high performance schools and providing incentives for excellent school leaders and teachers to improve the quality of teachers.

Muhyiddin said that both the private and public sectors in Malaysia were now involved in a concerted effort to expand access to early education.

"Working closely with the private sector, the Malaysian government will open more pre-school classes to provide all Malaysian children with opportunities for quality early education, not forgetting the need to make provision subsequently to help children who are handicapped and who need continuing education during periods of long confinement in hospitals and other centres," he said.

In the address which also touched on promoting the culture of peace, Muhyiddin urged Unesco to give assistance to the Palestinian Authority in the full development of education and cultural institutions in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and in East Jerusalem as a continuous support in promoting peace and stability in a region, which can truly claim to be the ancestral home to three of the world's great religion.

Malaysia has been a member of Unesco since June 1958 and is a member of its executive board which comprises 58 countries.

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