Italy has stepped in to help with the sustainable development and support for Rakhine State’s Mrauk-U as a World Heritage Site.
The Ambassador of Italy to Myanmar, Mr. Pier Giorgio Aliberti, and the Head of UNESCO Myanmar Office, Ms. Min Jeong Kim, signed on 28 March at the Embassy of Italy in Yangon the Agreement for “Supporting the safeguarding, management and valorisation of Mrauk-U”, a multi-bilateral initiative funded by the Government of Italy for an amount of 300,000 Euro, in the presence of the Director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation Yangon, Eng. Maurizio Di Calisto.
This Project directly responds to the requests of the Myanmar Government to support the development of Rakhine State in line with the Recommendations provided by the Advisory Commission on Rakhine State in August 2017. The Government duly acknowledged the role that the valorisation of Mrauk-U may play in the sustainable development of the whole region, and committed to support the nomination of Mrauk-U as World Heritage Site. In this framework, Italy will work closely with China, under the coordination of MoRAC and DOA, as major players in the protection of this monumental site.
This initiative will be implemented by UNESCO under the supervision of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in partnership with the Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture – Department of Archaeology; the Mrauk-U project is aimed at strengthening (DOA) capacity for the management and conservation of Mrauk-U in line with the World Heritage standards, and at engaging the local communities in enhancing the site’s protection while improving their socio-economic well-being.