The Cultural Heritage Administration (Administrator Kim Hyun-Mo) held a ceremony at the Bagan Archaeological Museum on January 11th (10 am local time), to present four types of manuals* such as mural conservation treatment, which was developed through the application of Korean mural conservation and management techniques. The Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture of Myanmar, director of the Department of Archaeology and National Museum, the ROK Ambassador to Myanmar, the head of the Bagan Office of the Korea Cultural Heritage Foundation were present.
*Mural conservation treatment, structural monitoring, GPR (Ground Penetrating Radar), the basic management plan for the temple

The ceremony order is as follows: welcome speech by the Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture of Myanmar (U Aung Ko) and the ROK Ambassador to Myanmar (Lee Sang-hwa); report of the outcomes of the first phase of the ODA and its second phase projects; presentation of the manual (Korea ？ Myanmar) and a plaque of appreciation (Myanmar ？ Korea); unveiling ceremony of the sign stone for Phaya Thon Zu.

Myanmar's Bagan area is the base area for the New Southern Cultural Heritage ODA project. The Cultural Heritage Administration supported the Bagan Archaeological Museum and Phaya Thon Zu Temple from 2015 to 2020 with capacity building for World Heritage inscription, emergency recovery from earthquake damage, conservation treatment capacity building, and producing mural conservation manual.

The Bagan region was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in July 2019 in recognition of its uniqueness of Buddhist culture. The manual produced was adopted as a standard manual for the Bagan region and will be widely used for training local government officials and workers on the conservation and management of cultural properties and capacity building. As an expression of appreciation, Myanmar presented the Cultural Heritage Administration with the appreciation plaque and the ROK Ambassador to Myanmar received it on behalf due to COVID-19.

Based on the know-how of conserving the historical cities of Gyeongju and Baekje, the Cultural Heritage Administration plans to promote a historical village construction project as part of the 2nd ODA project in Minanthu Village from 2021 to 2025. It will become an example of balance between the conservation and utilization of cultural heritage.

The project is one of the core projects of the Korean government's New Southern Policy Plus (New Southern Promotion Team announced in November 2019). The Cultural Heritage Administration will cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) to improve the quality of life through rural development support.