President Georgi Parvanov took part today in the Communicating Heritage: new vision for South-East Europe summit in Opatia, Croatia. The summit was a follow-up to the Cultural Corridors in South-East Europe Forum held in Varna in 2006 on the initiative of the Bulgarian President.

As outlined in the Varna Declaration, the Forum in Opatia adopted a strategy for the identification, preservation, sustainable development and promotion of the cultural corridors in Southeast Europe. The strategy was presented today by prof. Todor Krestev with the recently launched specialised site Virtual Cultural Corridors in Southeast Europe. […]

The cultural corridors Internet page was made possible with the support of the governments of Luxemburg and of Bulgaria, with the participation of experts from Southeast Europe and with the support of UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European Commission. As President Parvanov pointed out, it is a valuable source of rich and well-structured information on the cultural and historical heritage of the region and can be an excellent basis for developing regional networks of experts, as well as of NGOs working in this area.

The multimedia product Treasure Quest was developed by a Bulgarian team with the support of British Council Bulgaria, with the participation of experts from South-East Europe and UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European Commission. It is a wonderful teaching resource for the children in Southeast Europe offering a contemporary and entertaining way to make our children aware of the rich cultural and historical heritage of Southeast Europe, to make them feel proud of their heritage and to teach them how to preserve it, the President said in his address. He also stated that this multimedia product stimulated intercultural education as means of encouraging mutual understanding and tolerance, and created new opportunities for communication, exchange and network-building.

Georgi Parvanov also presented another idea he has been launching among the young people in Bulgaria  - “Getting to know and preserving Bulgarian cultural heritage”. ‘I think that this idea of mine has found adequate interpretation in the multimedia product Treasure Quest, where the national scale is widened to include the entire region, and so the motto has now become “Getting to know and preserving Southeast Europe cultural heritage”, said Georgi Parvanov and appealed to the participants in the forum to work towards its practical realisation. […]