With the view of reinforcing the promotion of the Silk Roads Cultural Heritage and for the realization of the objectives of the Silk Road Online Platform, UNESCO establishes partnerships with both public and private partners.
In this respect, one of the private sector partners of UNESCO is the Tang West Market Cultural Industries Investment Group. The Group is headquartered in Xi’an, China; the city is considered as the starting point of the historic overland Silk Roads. The Group derives its name from the famed Tang West Market of the Chinese Tang Dynasty (681-907 AD), a market that was at the heart of trans-regional trade on the Silk Roads.
The Tang West Market Group defines its objectives as promoting and strengthening multilateral interactions among people of China and people of some forty countries along the historic Silk Roads in Asia, Africa and Europe with a view of contributing to sustainable cultural and economic development of these regions; thereby, stimulating mutual understanding, intercultural dialogue and peace.
In this respect, the group has launched different initiatives including its five Silk Roads initiatives : the Silk Road International Expo Park; the Silk Roads Online, the Silk Road Commerce, Tourism and Culture Exposition; and the Silk Road Cultural and Academic Research Institute. Moreover, the Tang West Market Group has established a museum that contains an outstanding indoors and outdoors collection of the Silk Roads objects and artifacts.
The Tang West Market Group signed a partnership agreement with UNESCO in October 2014 to support the UNESCO Silk Road Online Platform by providing financial resources for this project over a five year period with a view of building a worldwide online space which enable people to learn and share knowledge and experience of the Silk Roads.
In May 2015, UNESCO organized the first meeting of the International Network for the Silk Road Online Platform with the generous support and the efficient logistic provided by the Tang West Market Group in Xi’an, China.
With their shared vision and partnership, Tang West Market and UNESCO are committed to the promotion of the Silk Roads common cultural heritage through the Silk Road Online Platform and other similar initiatives.