Hoi An City under Quang Nam Province in central Vietnam, and Da Lat, a popular tourist site in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, have been named among new global creative cities by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The two cities joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) on World Cities Day (October 31).

The Da Lat People’s Committee said on Tuesday afternoon that UNESCO had sent it a letter to announce that the city became a member of UCCN for music.

Meanwhile, Hoi An was honored as a global creative city of crafts and folk art.

Da Lat and Hoi An were among 55 new cities joining UNESCO’s network following the designation by UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay.

The new cities were acknowledged for their strong commitment to harnessing culture and creativity as part of their development strategies, and displaying innovative practices in human-centered urban planning. 

Hanoi became a creative city of design in the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2019.

A representative from the Hoi An People’s Committee told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that the administration was waiting for an official letter from UNESCO.

It is a great honor for the city to become a member of UCCN, said the representative.

UNESCO announced a list of new UCCN members, including Da Lat and Hoi An, on its website at 4:00 pm on Tuesday.

Hoi An City is home to five traditional craft villages, with some 50 crafts, including pottery, carpentry, lantern-making, and tailoring.

The city’s ecosystem of crafts, coupled with residents’ habits, contributed to forming various types of folk art such as ho khoan (a singing style of Vietnamese folk music songs), bai choi (a diverse art combining music, poetry, acting, painting, and literature), and hat boi (classical Vietnamese opera), according to UNESCO’s assessment.

Hoi An houses 658 small enterprises and 1,710 business households active in crafts and folk art.

Each of some 4,000 workers earn US$3,500-4,000 each year from the field.

Joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network opens a wider door for Hoi An to popularize images of its people and cultural features among international friends.

As a global creative city, Hoi An will unlock its potential to thrive and foster cultural preservation, said the city’s representative..

Established in 2004, the UNESCO Creative Cities Network is meant to boost cooperation between certified cities, moving toward sustainable development in economy, society, and environment.

With the latest additions, the network now counts 350 cities in more than one hundred countries, representing seven creative fields: crafts and folk art, design, film, gastronomy, literature, media arts, and music.

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