GEORGE TOWN HERITAGE CELEBRATIONS 2019 APPRECIATION DINNER
OPENING REMARKS FOR
GEORGE TOWN HERITAGE CELEBRATIONS 2019 APPRECIATION DINNER
BY
YANG AMAT BERHORMAT TUAN CHOW KON YEOW
CHIEF MINISTER OF PENANG
CHAIRMAN OF GEORGE TOWN WORLD HERITAGE INCORPORATED
SUNDAY, 7 JULY 2019 | 7:45 PM
SEH TEK TONG CHEAH KONGSI, GEORGE TOWN
Ladies and Gentlemen
A very warm welcome and good evening to everyone here. It is good to see many familiar faces tonight at the George Town Heritage Celebrations 2019 Appreciation Dinner.
This year marks the 11th year George Town has been inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List. Back in 2008, it was a tough struggle when Penang were learning the most efficient and appropriate way in managing and safeguarding our World Heritage Site. With the strong and persistent support from the people of Penang, in particular many of you who have been with us since 2008, George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site is now one of the best managed World Heritage Sites in the world.
For more than one decade, we, the people and the State Government of Penang, have overcome the difficult learning curve, and have established the George Town Heritage Celebrations as one of the biggest community-based World Heritage celebrations in Malaysia. We have also declared the 7th of July as a public holiday in Penang to commemorate this important, historical day, making it possible for us to take time off from work and visit the World Heritage Site to appreciate and celebrate our cultural heritage.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We are blessed to be living in George Town and to be part of such a peaceful, diverse, and active multicultural community. It is important for us to continue cultivating mutual respect and tolerance with one another to ensure that such peace is maintained. We must ensure that the cultural heritage of George Town can continue to be the added value and asset for our generation and the next generations, so that our city can prosper in a sustainable and affordable way.
On top of that, George Town has been successful in recent projects with UNESCO. Through the Community-based Intangible Cultural Heritage Inventorying conducted in the first half of this year, 23 community groups have managed to record and document their own cultural heritage, of which the output has been presented in this year’s George Town Heritage Celebrations.
In another UNESCO project, George Town is a successful pilot case and also the most advanced pilot city in developing a Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy. A series of informative posters in four languages on fire and flood prevention has been published and distributed, community workshops have been conducted, and only just last month, the Experience Sharing Workshop with other international heritage cities was hosted in George Town. The second phase of firefighting training for the community is expected to be held in September 2019.
We have also initiated the Living Heritage Recognition and Appreciation Programme to give recognition to long-standing establishments of skilled trades and crafts in the George Town UNESCO World Heritage Site. The response has been encouraging and we invite more artisans, craftsmen, and practitioners to apply for this programme of which the deadline has been extended to 15 September 2019.
These projects are community-based, and we are a leading World Heritage Site, able to implement meaningful and comprehensive cultural heritage capacity building projects with a bottom-up approach. Our efforts and best practices have been praised by UNESCO and we have also been selected as the Learning Site by other international bodies and agencies.
The annual George Town Heritage Celebrations has proven to be an effective platform for community groups of different backgrounds to work together, to map the culture we value, and to share with visitors our knowledge on heritage. Indeed, we are empowered to take ownership of our culture and identity through the eight months of preparation works. Such capacity-building and public awareness raising are a crucial investment for ourselves and our society. Such traits are important as we work to achieve the Penang2030 vision, towards a Family-focused Green and Smart State that Inspires the Nation.
I wish to congratulate all 24 participating communities, private sponsors and public entities for successfully organising the 2019 George Town Heritage Celebrations. During my tour of the Street Festival yesterday evening, I was indeed impressed with the depth of the content that all of you have selflessly shared with the visitors.
I would also have to congratulate George Town World Heritage Incorporated for doing another year of an excellent job. I understand that the GTWHI team, with more than 30 project staffs together with 400 volunteers, have been planning and preparing the event since the beginning of this year, and they have worked night and day to make sure the event will run smoothly. Congratulations and keep up the good work in keeping our heritage alive.
Before I end my speech, let me once again thank you for working with us in managing this UNESCO World Heritage Site together. I hope you will enjoy the dinner tonight, relax and network with our fellow friends, enjoy the good music, and hopefully you will win prizes in the lucky draw tonight.
Thank you.