iet Nam wants to become a market leader for so-called cultural industries in Southeast Asia by 2020. It hopes to extend this vision to the rest of the world by 2030.— Photo qdnd

HA NOI (VNS) — Viet Nam wants to become a market leader for so-called cultural industries in Southeast Asia by 2020. It hopes to extend this vision to the rest of the world by 2030.

These goals are the official targets for the exploitation of culture in Viet Nam. They were announced yesterday at a conference on "the creative economy" in Asia and Europe.

Bui Hoai Son, deputy director of the Viet Nam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies said that culture played an important role in the development of a country, providing trade opportunities, contributing to GDP and promoting cultural distinctiveness.

However, he claimed it remained untapped potential. "Viet Nam is much behind other countries in developing this sector," he said.

According to Son, domestic and international markets for Vietnamese cultural products and services are under-developed. "They simply aren't attractive to consumers", he said.

Moreover, the cultural sector lacks the support or co-operation of other sectors and many organisations lack the skills and legal requirements to attract investments.

Son said three organisations were needed to be set up to overcome this. These were a national committee to represent Vietnamese cultural industries, an international advisory group to provide strategic and technical assistance - and a cultural industries agency to build a delivery team for sector development.

Karsten Warnecke, deputy executive director of Asia-Europe Foundation said that the publication of a new strategy would lift the performance and value of Vietnamese cultural industries to a position of market leader in Southeast Asia.

More than 20 experts and delegates from 15 countries discussed the cultural strategy plan for Viet Nam.

A completed version is likely to be prepared in time for sixth ASEM Culture Ministers' Meeting in the Netherlands next year. — VNS