Following his visit to Vietnam, Luca Maestripieri, Director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS), paid a visit to Myanmar from the 9th to the 13th of January 2020. While in the country, he attended meetings with the Ambassador of Italy, Alessandra Schiavo, the staff of the local AICS office and with representatives of the Government of Myanmar. Accompanied by the recently appointed director of the AICS office in Yangon Walter Zucconi, Director Maestripieri visited some of the AICS-funded projects in the country including initiatives promoted and co-funded by AICS and carried out by the Italian NGOs Progetto Continenti and Terre des Hommes Italia in Magway Region, part of the Dry Zone of central Myanmar. Both initiatives are aimed at promoting training and organization of small farmers on sustainable agricultural practices, as well as strengthening local value-chains. The two projects also built the resilience of rural communities to climate change, important in an area like the Dry Zone which is already characterized by scarce and unpredictable rainfall.
Director Maestripieri also met the Director General of the Department of Archeology of the MoRAC (Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture) at Bagan World Heritage Site. Bagan was recently named as a World Heritage Site also thanks to the efforts and commitment of the Myanmar Government mandated institutions supported by AICS and UNESCO. Since its presence in Myanmar, the Italian Cooperation has been at the forefront of safeguarding Myanmar cultural heritage, and in 2014 assisted MoRAC in preparing the nomination file for the Ancient Cities of Pyu for the UNESCO World Heritage list. AICS continues to support Myanmar Cultural Heritage and is currently involved in the protection of the archaeological site of Mrauk U in the State of Rakhine.