The event was attended by Mr. Hoang Tuan Anh, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism; Mr. Ha Hung Cuong, Minister of Justice; Ms Katherine Muller Marin, Chief Representative of the UNESCO in Viet Nam; Mr. Luong Ngoc Binh, Secretary of the provincial People's Committee, Chairman of the provincial People's Council; Mr. Nguyen Huu Hoai, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee; leading representatives of Thua Thien Hue, Ha Tinh and Quang Tri provinces; leaders of districts and city as well as relevant agencies in the province.

Chairman of the provincial People's Committee delivers a speech at the opening ceremony

At the opening ceremony, Chairman of the Quang Binh provincial People's Committee, Nguyen Huu Hoai affirmed that the Quang Binh Cave Festival will be held twice a year to introduce a new model for tourism that combines cave exploration and folk performance, photography exhibition and the local cuisine as well as scientific research on the ecosystems in PhongNha Ke Bang Park. Chairman also sent a message to all people to join hand in hand to preserve the nature and heritage site.

During the past ten years, the Quang Binh's authorities and people has incessantly tried their best to preserve the heritage values, well abided the Convention for the Protection of the Cultural and Natural World Heritage so that Phong Nha - Ke Bang becomes one of 200 biodiversity centers of the world.

Especially, with about 300 caves, Phong Nha - Ke Bang is named "Kingdom of Cave" and home of a large number of faunal and floral species.

At the opening ceremony, which was broadcast live on VTV1 and VTV4, visitors had the chance to talk with British cave explorer Howard Limbert (the Biritish Cave Research Association) and well-known local guide Ho Khanh (Son Trach, Quang Trach, Quang Binh) to learn about exploring the limestone caves in PhongNha-Ke Bang National Park.

A musical performance

Visitors also enjoyed the mysterious beauty of Quang Binh caves through television reports and a musical performance with unique traditional songs from the province’s ethnic minority groups performed inside the cave.

Caver Howard Limbert said that the festival will help Quang Binh and Vietnam spread the image to the world and attract more visitors.

Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourist highly evaluated the efforts of Quang Binh province in conservation and preservation of global values of Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park world natural heritage. Minister Hoang Tuan Anh also asked Quang Binh province to continuously promote achievements obtained in the past ten years and take advantage of assistance of international organizations and scientists to conserve the heritage values and promote sustainable tourism development.

Reported by Minh Huyen
(www.quangbinh.gov.vn)