UNESCO and Northwest China's Gansu province have signed a partnership agreement to promote cultural heritage protection and creative industries in the province.

At the recent virtual signing ceremony, Shahbaz Khan, director and representative of the UNESCO Beijing Office, said UNESCO is committed to continuing its support for Gansu in becoming a "truly world-class cultural center".

UNESCO will introduce best practices in site conservation and management, sustainable cultural tourism development, community involvement in heritage protection, safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage and development of cultural and creative industries, Khan says.

According to the agreement, UNESCO will provide solutions for the province to implement a development framework, and hold training sessions on intangible cultural heritage protection and creative industry development.

Dunhuang, a city in Gansu that is home to the Mogao Caves, a long-established UNESCO World Heritage Site, is on its way to becoming a cultural hub along the Silk Road, Khan says.

"I see also a fantastic window of opportunity for the whole province to start envisioning the next generation of urban development, focusing on an integrated approach to culture-based sustainable development," says Khan.

Gansu hopes the cooperation will allow the province to share with the world its experience in cultural heritage protection and innovation, so as to promote global cultural development, says Chen Weizhong, head of the Gansu provincial department of culture and tourism.