• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
• /
• v.49 no.3
• /
• pp.270-285
• /
• 2016

Various opinions and discussions have been actively in progress which are connected with cultural heritage since 'Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs' was announced by UN Sustainable Development Summit 2015 as Post-2015 Development Agenda. Apart from SDGs, conservation of cultural heritage itself stands on the basis of sustainability that originality, characteristic, diversity of cultural heritage should be permanently preserved. From that point of view, it is necessary to understand practical ODA for cultural heritage, far from theoretical approaches and policies. This paper is intended to look into the domestic and overseas situation related to ODA of Asian cultural heritage and the mentioned problems, future plans and challenges. First, the background and concepts about ODA were described and then ODA projects which have been carried out by Japan and China as typical ODA countries for Southeast Asia were introduced. ODA of cultural heritage in Korea has relatively recently started for restoration work for historic sites of Laos and Cambodia and its scale and performance do not come to much yet. Therefore, to develop ODA of cultural heritage, there are suggestions as in the followings. First, it is necessary to have a long-term master plan of ODA projects for sustainability of cultural heritage. Second, based on the view from the long-term perspective, the selection and focus for ODA partner countries should be considered, avoiding short-term projects aiming at a number of countries. Not widespread existing projects by other countries, but the model of Korean ODA for cultural heritage only Korea can conduct should be prepared. The next thing is connection with sustainability, and ultimately the conservation of cultural heritage should result in benefit to the natives by giving an impetus to economy as well as fostering tourism of local areas. To accomplish that connection, educational training and building capacity are suggested as the most suitable alternatives. Cultural heritage of each country reflects its indigenous originality and characteristics, therefore, the restoration work should be conducted by people in each country as the best way. From this point of view, ACPCS held by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage will take a role of a specialized training program in Korean way. Lastly, establishment of a control tower for ODA in Korea is necessary. JCIC(Japan Consortium for International Cooperation in Cultural Heritage), which was set up in Japan for sharing information, establishment of cooperation system and prevention of overlapped projects will be an example we can take into consideration.