The international conference “Preserving and promoting national identity for sustainable development” co-organized by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Bansomdej Chaopraya University (Thailand) was opened on the morning of December 17, 2010.Using an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach, the workshop focused on clarifying the role of culture in general and traditional national cultural identity in particular for the sustainable development of each country, each region, and cultural space in the face of regional and world integration trends and requirements. At the same time, the workshop also presented the experiences of a number of countries in formulating policies to preserve and promote national cultural identity for the goal of sustainable development. At the opening session, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh - Principal of the School - in his speech and introductory report emphasized: The current strong trend of regionalization and internationalization has brought many development opportunities for countries but also posed many challenges and difficulties in choosing policies, development paths, and preserving traditional cultural values. Under the impact of the globalization process, each culture cannot exist in isolation but always has harmony and follows the impacts of external cultures. In multi-ethnic countries, the preservation and promotion of national cultural identity with its own lifestyles and characteristics associated with cultural diversity and sustainable development has also become one of the urgent issues. In addition, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Van Khanh expressed his hope that this conference will provide many profound academic insights and propose practical solutions for planning long-term, sustainable development policies.
After the plenary session, the workshop was divided into two subcommittees to discuss specific issues: The subcommittee on culture and sustainable development discussed the formation and exploitation of indigenous knowledge, culture and regional cultural nuances, customs and languages. Especially the issue of preserving and promoting traditional cultural values to serve the sustainable development of each country. The subcommittee on lessons and experiences in planning and implementing policies to preserve and promote national cultural identity for sustainable development focused on discussing proposals, solutions, and policies of the community in cultural preservation. One of the issues that received much attention and interest at this workshop was the formation and exploitation of local knowledge, with more than 10 reports focusing on this issue. A typical example is the presentation "Exploiting local knowledge of ethnic minorities to serve sustainable development - anthropological approach" by Associate Professor Dr. Lam Ba Nam, who gave a popular and very specific definition of local knowledge as a system of any knowledge about the world created by the community, developed and linked to the history of the community as well as the specific conditions of each locality where that community lives... Associate Professor Dr. Lam Ba Nam believes that local knowledge should not be underestimated but that it is necessary to exploit that local knowledge to serve sustainable development. Some other reports also mentioned in detail different aspects of local knowledge such as: "Indigenous knowledge to preserve and develop Thai script and language in the Northwest region" - by author Nguyen Trung Hoa (Center for Research on Development of Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas), "Indigenous knowledge of traditional food of the Bangkradee community, Bangkok, Thailand - Jamnong Trinumit (Bansomdej Chapraya Rajabhat University), "The issue of indigenous knowledge and sustainable development in the local residential area of Truong Son - Tay Nguyen" - Dr. Nguyen Thi Hoa (Institute for Sustainable Development of the Tay Nguyen region)... In addition, there are many other issues that have become the focus of many international conferences and forums that have received much attention from Vietnamese and international scientists from China, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia such as customs and languages. In particular, one of the urgent issues today is the preservation of customs and languages of ethnic minorities. Number, community policies in preserving culture, the role of mass media in preserving and developing traditional cultural values...
