Nyusi calls for deeper ties between Culture and Business

Login

Register

http://www.clubofmozambique.com/

Nyusi calls for deeper ties between Culture and Business

6:34 CAT | 24 May 2017

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Monday challenged the various actors in Mozambican society to deepen the relationship between culture, business and tourism.

He was aiming this appeal not only at cultural entrepreneurs, but at other productive sectors, in a drive to ensure that the country’s cultural potential plays an ever sharper role in Mozambique’s development.

Nyusi was speaking in Maputo at the opening of the First National Forum of Cultural Industries and Creative Economy, a two day event bringing together artists, managers of cultural institutions, representatives of government bodies, civil society organizations and cooperation partners.

“All social actors, the makers of culture, religious denominations, civil society, political parties, and educational and research institutions are called upon to throw light on the secret of the marriage between culture and tourism”, he said.

Nyusi believed that cultural activities could stimulate a whole range of other economic activities – but he did not want the forum to degenerate “into a session of lamentations, where people murmur saying ‘nobody wants us, they’re forgetting us’. That’s not culture”.

He urged all those involved in cultural activities to be more pro-active. “Discuss solutions, and impose yourselves on society”, he declared.

“The debates at this forum”, Nyusi said, “should lead to identifying mechanisms that allow the transformation of culture into a tool for generating income and reducing social inequalities, with broad involvement of young people and of women”.

He said the government is well aware of the difficulties that artists face, particularly in marketing Mozambican cultural products, but he urged his audience to make the value chain of cultural industries more effective.

Cultural and creative industries had a role to play “in our struggle for the welfare of citizens and for sustainable and comprehensive development”, he said. “We are sure that artistic and creative production will contribute to generating employment and income”.

But the President stressed the need to improve the quality of cultural goods and services so that they are competitive nationally and internationally, and to strengthen cultural businesses so that they can indeed create more jobs.

The Forum, organised by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, is intended to lay the groundwork for implementing the government’s policy on cultural and creative industries.

Source: AIM