Paris, 18 September {No. 96-163}- A new centre created in Fez by Morocco and UNESCO to promote quality handicrafts on a world scale opened with a seminar on innovation which concluded today.

The two-day seminar on the theme, "Handicrafts and the Challenge of Design and Innovation," was the first professional activity of the new International Centre for Promotion of Crafts (ICPC), set up in 1995 under an agreement between the Moroccan government and the Organization.

The ICPC's mandate is to gather and disseminate data on the forms and techniques of crafts world-wide, using modern information and communication technologies.

It is also charged with organizing exchanges of experience between master and young craftsmen from different regions and cultures by conducting training workshops; preparing studies for promoting quality crafts; and encouraging the adaptation of crafts products to the requirements of today's consumers by fostering innovation and creativity while maintaining the authenticity of traditional crafts.

The Kingdom of Morocco installed the ICPC in the heart of the Fez medina in a handsome, traditional, 19th century building which itself illustrates the know-how of master craftsmen. It will also provide it with personnel and basic equipment for starting the centre's activities.

Professionals and representatives of the handicrafts field from the five continents had previously gathered in Fez on 15 and 16 September for the first meeting of the ICPC Advisory Committee to define its orientation, programmes and activities. The committee examined ways to co-ordinate activities of craftsmen the world over and to bring out their complementarity in order to promote co-operation among them.

The committee was composed of experts from Burkina Faso and Zimbabwe for Africa; Colombia and Mexico for Latin America and the Caribbean; Japan, Malaysia and Thailand for Asia and the Pacific; Saudi Arabia and Syria for the Arab states; and the United States and France for North America and Europe. A representative of the International Trade Centre also attended the meeting.