In a bid to safeguard historical records, the National Authority for Preah Vihear (NAPV), with support from UNESCO, plans to create an archival management system for the World Heritage site.

This system will make it easier for various departments under the NAPV to access and use these documents.

NAPV director-general Kong Puthikar led a meeting to discuss the “Protection of World Heritage Archives in Southeast Asia” project, according to an official social media post.

The discussion focused on the setup of a document management system for secure data storage and better archive management in World Heritage sites.

“[NAPV] wants to compile all the relevant documents into a system,” Puthikar said.

He added that this would mean each department of the NAPV could access and use these records more easily.

He also said that the archive system would significantly improve the efficiency of research, as it would give all departments access to the complete data on the World Heritage site.

This marks a change from the past, where each department managed their own archives independently.

“When other departments want to use a document, they just contact the specialised department to find that professional document,” Puthikar said.

He highlighted the difficulties in maintaining and preserving documents long term without a common archive management system, and hence, the collaboration with UNESCO.

Puthikar asserted the importance of the shared archive system for preserving documents related to World Heritage Site conservation, both handwritten and computerised, as well as historic images of the Preah Vihear temple area.

“More importantly, this shared file management system can also help to add more new files for 2023, 2024 to 2025 onwards to save files for later use,” he said.