'Culture creates cohension of society', UNESCO director-general

In the eyes of Irina Bokova, director-general of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), culture plays a huge important role in all the discussion about development.

Bokova shared her view on culture and cultural protection in an interview with Xinhua at the UNESCO's International Congress of Hangzhou held last week.

She said at the Rio+20 conference on sustainable development last year, world leaders reached the "Future We Want" document, defining the future development in three aspects -- the economic aspect, the environmental aspect of development and the social aspect.

"Within these developments, all the three, we believe that culture plays a role," said the UNESCO director-general.

She said culture can create jobs. It creates the cohesion of the society, overcome poverty, and bring a lot more social mobility. Cultural knowledge may bring particular solutions to environmental protection.

UNESCO concluded the International Congress of Hangzhou on Friday by issuing a declaration recognizing the power of culture for sustainable development.

The declaration calls upon the world to integrate culture into all development policies and plans, facilitate cultural development, mutual cultural understanding and cultural reconciliation, safeguard the cultural rights of all to promote inclusive social development, and boost the role of culture in poverty reduction and inclusive development.