Datuk Wee Hong Seng
KUCHING (June 26): A delegation from Kuching will be attending the XIV Unesco Creative Cities Network (UCCN) annual conference in its inaugural year as a City of Gastronomy.
This year’s conference is to be held in Santos, a Creative City of Film, in Brazil.
With the theme ‘Creativity, path to equality’, this is the first gathering of the Creative Cities in two years since the start of the pandemic and Kuching’s first attendance since its designation to the network in November last year.
Therefore, UCCN Kuching is calling on local stakeholders to contact them with any information on activities in the city which could support their visit.
“This is a very important opportunity for Kuching to make new links with other network cities. The conference is open to all 295 Creative Cities around the world and it is the network’s key platform for knowledge sharing and exchange.
“We will be formally inducted into the network and also get the chance to share our views and experience as a city, particularly important during this period of rebuilding after the pandemic.
“We are very grateful to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac) Malaysia for their support which has allowed us to send delegates in this first year of our membership,” said Kuching South Mayor Datuk Wee Hong Seng.
He added that this will be the city’s opportunity to brand itself within this collaborative network and to tell the world about all the amazing activities, events and programmes underway in our gastronomy and creative sectors currently, from both private and public agencies.
“This runs from foodpreneur programmes like Sarawak Gastronomy (Sago) incubator, to gastronomy conferences planned for the end of the year, like EAT Borneo and Nyamai.
“Not to mention all our festivals, including Kuching Festival coming back soon. We want to make sure we represent our city as a whole to the best of our abilities,” said Wee.
The delegation from Kuching is made up of Culinary Heritage and Arts Society Sarawak (CHASS) chairperson and a representative of civil society, and the newly appointed focal point of this project and a representative of the creative economy itself, Karen Shepherd.
“This is how Kuching as a city of gastronomy will be working going forward. It is very much a cooperative framework and we urge interested parties in the city to make contact with any information or activities that they would like to share with the network,” Wee said.
UCCN Kuching will be holding a forum on July 13 to engage with the city’s stakeholders and collect their feedback before the delegation departs.
This will be opened to anyone involved in either the gastronomy sector or the city’s creative industries, where they will be given an opportunity to share their experience.
For more information, please contact the UCCN Kuching team on [email protected]