In honor of World Cities Day on October 31, the Ministry of Culture held a round table on the UNESCO Creative Cities Network at the Heydar Aliyev Center.
The event was attended by Jahangir Salimkhanov, adviser to the Minister of Culture, heads and employees of the structural divisions of the ministry, representatives of regional culture departments, Shaki, Baku, and Lankaran city executive authorities, the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Azerbaijan to UNESCO and the National Commission of the Republic of Azerbaijan for UNESCO.
The session began with a brief overview of the history, importance, and objectives of the UNESCO Creative Industries Network, and participants shared their thoughts on its role in the socio-economic development of cities.
Presentations were then given on Shaki, Baku, and Lankaran, which are members of the Creative Cities Network, outlining the work that has been done during their membership. It was noted that these cities have undertaken various projects and organized events to promote creativity locally and internationally.
In order to organize a more active involvement of our cities in the network, suggestions were made to improve coordination mechanisms, to participate in sub-network meetings held around the world, to attend the annual conference of the Creative Cities Network in Queretaro, Mexico, and to collaborate with other member cities.
It was reported that work is underway to submit appropriate nominations to the UNESCO Secretariat for other Azerbaijani cities to join the network.
The Azerbaijani city of Shaki has been a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network since 2017 in the craft and folk art category, Baku since 2019 in the design category, and Lankaran since 2021 in the gastronomy category.
