HÀ NỘI — Digitalisation is creating new opportunities to preserve and promote the cultural heritage of Việt Nam’s ethnic communities, while experts stress the need to ensure that culture remains at the centre.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has emphasised that safeguarding living heritage does not mean keeping it in an unchanged state, but ensuring that the knowledge and skills associated with it continue to be transmitted and recreated in community life.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has launched a platform to manage the national cultural heritage database. However, experts say ethnic cultures have distinctive characteristics that require appropriate infrastructure and specialised approaches to data management and digitalisation.

They recommend that each digitisation project involve artisans, village elders, respected community members and the wider community from the selection and documentation of materials to their interpretation and decisions on what information should be made public and what should remain for internal use.

Experts also call for stronger legal mechanisms to protect copyright and interests arising from ethnic cultural data. Such mechanisms should clarify who has the right to access and use the data and how those who preserve culture, including artisans and communities, can benefit when it is used for commercial purposes.

Greater attention should also be paid to digital cultural education among ethnic youth, who are both recipients of cultural knowledge and creators of digital content. Training in filming, audio recording, digital storytelling, data preservation and responsible AI use can help develop a new generation of cultural practitioners.

The approach is consistent with Resolution 57-NQ/TW, which identifies science, technology, innovation and digital transformation as key drivers of national development. Properly managed, digitalisation can help preserve cultural heritage while creating new opportunities for communities and contributing to sustainable development. — VNS