Over the past decade, with the support of various international agencies, strenuous efforts have been made by the government to to safeguard Việt Nam’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites. There are currently five of these - the Huế Historic Monuments, Hội An Old Town, the Chăm towers at Mỹ Sơn, Hạ Long Bay and Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park.

Between 2000 and 2005 the government spent VNĐ294 billion (US$18.73 million) restoring 418 historical, revolutionary and cultural relics. However, at the time of writing more than 1,000 other vestiges remain in urgent need of restoration.

Under the Cultural Development Strategy of 2003 a target was set to restore at least 50 per cent of all of the country's heritage sites by Hà Nội’s 1,000th anniversary year of 2010, and in 2005 the then Ministry of Culture and Information announced a VNĐ4 trillion (US$250 million) project to preserve the nation's most valuable historic sites over a period of five years.

However, it must be borne in mind that the great majority of Việt Nam’s monuments and sites are managed by local authorities. Some - notably those in Huế, Hội An and Duy Xuyên (Mỹ Sơn) - have been able to hone their restoration skills and acquire state-of-the-art conservation materials and equipment as a result of collaborative projects organised through the auspices of UNESCO or through bilateral or multilateral ties with other countries. Hà Nội People’s Committee has also made considerable progress in restoring what little original architecture is now left in Hà Nội's Old Quarter, which in recent decades has fallen victim to the chaotic growth of modern urban architecture.

Regrettably many more provincial and municipal authorities have very limited expertise and few financial and material resources with which to carry out the essential tasks of heritage conservation within their regions. Even today ancient buildings are all too often restored or reconstructed using inappropriate materials and sub-standard techniques, while the need to generate tourist dollars often results in the construction of unsightly entertainment complexes or cable car systems in close proximity to important historic sites.

Another serious problem facing the Vietnamese heritage sector is the illegal trafficking of antiquities. Vietnamese customs officials report that some 7,000 illegally trafficked artefacts are seized every year, but admit that the number of relics actually flowing out of the country could be significantly higher than this. In many cases, such as the June-July 2003 theft of statues from a number of Buddhist pagodas in northern Bắc Ninh Province, thieves operate in highly-organised gangs linked to international crime syndicates which sell the stolen items to overseas collectors for large sums of money. As yet there are no criteria for classifying various kinds of antiques, nor do regional customs staff have the relevant training to help them identify valuable artefacts.

This situation is compounded by the shortcomings of the Conservation and Museum Studies programme offered by the Hà Nội University of Culture (Trường Đại học Văn hóa Hà Nội), which has neither the text books, equipment or materials to teach contemporary conservation and museum management, and is thus concerned mainly with classroom-taught theory rather than practice.

A further issue facing the sector is that - as in many other developmental areas - whilst numerous bilateral and multilateral assistance projects are currently focused on enhancing the technical, curatorial and management skills of regional heritage staff and providing them with greater access to the latest conservation technology, those countries providing the assistance are all too often unaware of what other foreign partners are doing in Việt Nam, resulting all too often in duplication rather than co-operation.

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