An EU project on Regional Co-operation for Cultural Heritage Development has been officially launched in Yerevan, Armenia, on Friday.

The project is implemented within the European Commission Eastern Partnership Culture Programme and has a regional dimension. Its aim is to improve the heritage management environment and achieve better governance of the heritage sector in the Eastern Partnership region through developing regional cooperation for cultural heritage development. The initiative is also expected to integrate Cultural Heritage and economic development, as well as its sustainable protection in the countries involved. There are four specific objectives:

Development of national policy for heritage;

Capacity building of heritage sector stakeholders with the aim of enhancing role of heritage in sustainable economic development;

Promotion of the regional co-operation and exchange of experience within the EP region and between the region and EU countries; and Support of the civil society involvement in the planning and decision making processes.

The project is implemented in Georgia, Ukraine and Armenia and entails cooperation with all six countries of the Eastern Partnership. The leading partner is ICOMOS Georgia, while project partners are ICOMOS Armenia, Ltd. Architectura I Prestizh (Ukraine) and Norwegian Directorate for Cultural Heritage. Among the associate partners are the Caucasus Environmental NGO Network (CENN); the Erebuni Historical & Archaeological Museum-Reserve (Armenia) and the Institute of Monuments Protection Research (Ukraine). The Polish Embassy in Tbilisi and British Council are also supporting the project.
The project was launched at 4pm at the Erebuni Historical & Archaeological Museum-Reserve in Yerevan.