A special meeting of the World Internet Conference (WIC) working group on the cultural heritage digitalization was held in Xi'an, Northwest China's Shaanxi province, on Sept 16.

Ren Xianliang, secretary-general of the WIC, attended the meeting and delivered a speech. He stressed that in the new era of digital civilization, cultural heritage digitalization has become a crucial task for carrying forward human civilization and stimulating cultural innovation. He called for enhanced collaborative innovation and accelerated technological breakthroughs, the building of common standards to ensure security, the cultivation of digital industries to consolidate development foundations, and deepened openness and cooperation to promote mutual learning and exchange.

Ren said the WIC will continue to fully leverage its role as a platform for international exchange and collaboration, closely follow key issues in cultural heritage digitalization and facilitate joint research, collection of practical cases, expert seminars, industry matchmaking and capacity-building activities. These efforts aim to advance the healthy and sustainable development of cultural heritage digitalization, contributing to the preservation of civilizational roots, and helping write a new and more splendid chapter in digital civilization.

The meeting featured speeches from leading experts and representatives from a range of institutions, including the National Museum of China, the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Zhejiang University, the Communication University of China, Tencent, China Unicom, Zhonghua Book Company, and New Dimensional Imagination Digital Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd. Also represented were international organizations such as the Indian Institute of Heritage. Liang Hao, executive deputy secretary-general of the WIC, chaired the meeting.

Participants agreed to take the meeting as a new starting point to infuse technological vitality into cultural heritage preservation and advance the building of a community with a shared future in cyberspace.