Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great honour and pleasure for me to invite you to attend an extraordinary event hosted by Poland – the 4th ASEM Culture Ministers Meeting. The choice of the venue was not accidental since Poznań is considered to be the cradle of the Polish Nation. It is also a place with over a century-long tradition of cultural meetings. The main topic of this year’s Culture Ministers Meeting will be “Heritage and the Challenges of the Present”. The topic was chosen intentionally and Poland introduced it as one of the crucial aspects of cultural diversity at the previous meeting in Kuala Lumpur, where it was warmly welcomed by other ASEM platform members. Two years later, following the experience of global economic crisis, the concern for heritage is becoming an even more urgent – and at the same time – an even more universal problem. As it was stated in an inscription on the 9th Century Buddhist temple in Borobudur, Indonesia: “Our common heritage is our common responsibility”.

I am convinced that the 4th ASEM Culture Ministers Meeting in Poznań will contribute significantly to a strengthening of cultural awareness among the societies of the 45 parties who participate in the dialogue of European Union and Southeast Asia. I also hope it will inspire the dialogue and the transfer of knowledge and practices, which, in turn will lead to mutual undertakings to defend and protect the cultural treasury form the threats of the contemporary world.

Let me therefore invite you to Poznań in the most beautiful season of the year in Poland – commonly described as the “Polish Golden Autumn”. Apart from an intensive meeting and debate schedule, guests are welcomed to participate in a wide range of cultural activities accompanying the event, prepared by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage as well as the local authorities. The climax of the cultural program, which will symbolise the passage from the legacy of the past to the legacy of the present, will be the inaugural ceremony of the third edition of the Mediations Biennale – one of the largest presentations of contemporary art in Poland.

I am looking forward to seeing you in September.

/-Bogdan Zdrojewski-/

Minister of Culture and national Heritage of the Republic of Poland