President,IOV

2nd IOV Youth Congress

Nanjing, China

October 22, 2010

The International Organization of Folk Arts (IOV) welcomes the participants and guests to the 2nd  IOV World Youth Congress hosted by the Municipality of Nanjing and the Nanjing Youth Federation together with IOV China.

The IOV Youth was organized in the IOV General Assembly in Volos, Greece. This was followed by the 1st World Youth Congress held in Bountiful, Utah USA under the able leadership of Atty. George Frandsen. We welcomed for the first time the many young, intelligent and resourceful women and men in different parts of the world who presented their programs and projects for the promotion and safeguarding of the folk arts and culture of their countries. This rich harvest of projects showed the sustainability of IOV under the leadership of the IOV Youth.

Today is the start of the 2nd IOV World Youth Congress here in Nanjing, a fitting followup to the congress in the continent of North America as we bring into the Asian continent the concerns of IOV. Many countries from all over the world have seen the importance of coming to China to attend this Congress because IOV has emphasized the importance of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). China has an abundance of ICH to show to the world. The other country participants will have the opportunity to share with China and with the other countries the wealth of the folk culture which these countries will bring to this meeting.

IOV has just been included in the roster of UNESCO advisory bodies for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). We must say that IOV was 30 years ahead of this convention as we have been in the promotion and safeguarding of ICH from the start. We are fortunate that the UNESCO Convention on ICH has officially recognized the importance of NGOs in its work. We hope to continue to be an active participant in the programs of UNESCO.

We are also celebrating the 30th Anniversary of IOV which was founded by Alexander Veigl. We do him honor by celebrating it in consonance with the Congress.
I wish to take this opportunity to thank the Nanjing Municipality, Nanjing Youth Federation ,  Minister Wang from the Ministry of Culture,  the State Ethnic Affairs Commission of PRC, the Chinese National Academy of Arts, IOV China headed by Emma Chen Hoefler and her Secretariat headed by Liese and Steven , the IOV Presidential Council which has lead the IOV through many years of work, the IOV Editorial Team of the IOV Magazine for the 30th Anniversary celebration of IOV. I thank all the many wonderful IOV members who have in one way or another contributed  to the success of IOV as a whole and to the success of this 2nd World Youth Congress and the 30th IOV anniversary celebration.

More power to you all and God bless.