UNESCO. General Conference; 30th; Records ... - unesdoc - Unesco

and the perspective of meeting again in Vienna in 2002 to reconsider the same agenda, has helped us to envisage
more convincingly the role and the impact of “cultural development” in the world.
While striving for the common line of action, we need to preserve and highlight specific contributions
which can help preserve cultural identities (national or that of national minorities) in the rapidly globalized world
of today. One of the important aspects of this approach needs to be the promotion of plurilingualism in modern
communication, especially in cyberspace.
In this respect specific contributions to the Memory of the World must not be overlooked. In 2000, we
shall celebrate two important anniversaries marking the contribution of the Croatian people to European and
world culture: the 550th anniversary of the birth of Marko Marulić-Marulus, an author widely read in Europe at
the beginning of the sixteenth century, and the 900th anniversary of the oldest dated document written in the
glagolitic script - the specific Croatian contribution to European literacy which was used in Croatia along with
the Latin script for centuries.
Since 1989, the Culturelink project has been an important contribution from Croatia in the area of cultural
policies for development and our delegation is particularly proud to witness the creation of the Asia-Pacific
Regional Centre for Culturelink hosted by the Republic of Korea. We should like to use this occasion to thank all
those among the Member States and in the Secretariat who have supported the project during the first 10 years of
its existence and helped us surmount numerous difficulties of the past period.
University exchange in the field of archaeology and physical heritage preservation in the Mediterranean
area are some of the major activities of the Croatian Commission for UNESCO. In 1997 and 1998, international
summer workshops were organized in order to provide documentation indispensable for the protection and
reconstruction of rural architecture. An annual international seminar on new archaeological research is organized
since 1995 at the International Centre of Croatian Universities in Pula, bringing together experts and students
from many European countries.
Maritime heritage of the Mediterranean has been one of the most visible projects sponsored by the
Croatian Commission for UNESCO; layer upon layer of different civilizations and cultures that have enriched the
area represent a goldmine of common heritage which calls for joint action in this region. A well defined and
structured Mediterranean programme in UNESCO would receive more support from Member States in the
region. Cooperation between the maritime museums in the Mediterranean, proposed recently by the Maritime
Museum in Barcelona, represents a good start and needs full support from UNESCO.
Science
In the field of science, the World Conference on Science held in Budapest was the major event of the last
biennium and we would like to use this occasion to congratulate the host country for their efforts in organizing
the Conference. In the Declaration and the Plan of Action we now have important guidelines for understanding
and implementing sustainable development. Croatia is convinced that future research networking cannot only
focus on bilateral collaboration, but also calls for a wider network of cooperation. This is why Croatia welcomed
the initiative to bring together during the Budapest Conference ministers and senior officials responsible for
science policies in Central and Eastern European countries and is interested in pursuing this initiative by hosting
one of the next meetings. This session of the General Conference will also provide an opportunity for exchange
on a subregional level.
Croatia is particularly interested in participating and actively taking part in projects concentrating on the
Mediterranean and the Central European area. In the framework of the intersectoral project “Urban development
and freshwater resources: Small coastal cities”, which aims at the elaboration of general guidelines for the
sustainable development of small coastal towns, a series of activities were undertaken in Croatia in 1998 and
1999 with a view to defining a methodological frame of reference for the sustainable development of coastal
towns and coastal zones.
We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the UNESCO Venice Office for its support in
carrying out the above activities as well as their support for the International Summer School of Biophysics in
Rovinj which now has a tradition of bringing together people from all over the world for the last 20 years. At the
same time, we would like to express the need for the continuation of these activities in future with a closer
relation between environmental and cultural issues.
Croatia has participated in and hosted a series of meetings on traditional shipbuilding in the
Mediterranean; the Dubrovnik Declaration of 1995 expressed the intention of experts from Croatia, Greece,
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