Preparations for the 28th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) have begun in east China's Suzhou City, said committee President Zhang Xinsheng in Beijing Tuesday.  

The WHC session is scheduled for June 28 to July 7 in Suzhou, a historic city in Jiangsu Province.

Zhang, who is also vice minister of education and chairman of China National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said Chinese government departments had coordinated well to ensure the preparations for the WHC session.

China attached great importance to the conference, and all the world heritage sites and their local governments had adopted practical measures to ensure its success, he said.

China had also set up a leading group for the preparation work, headed by State Councilor Chen Zhili, who held a work meeting in Suzhou in January, and arranged for further preparations.

Exhibitions on China's world heritage projects would also be held, showing China's achievements in protecting natural and cultural heritage.

The slogan of the conference is "Protecting world heritage and promoting common development". Zhang believed the conference would play an important impact in the protection and development of world heritage in the 21st Century.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2004)