In 2023, Vietnam saw five films achieve hundreds of billions of Vietnamese dong in revenue, namely ‘Nha Ba Nu’ (Mrs. Nu's House), ‘Lat Mat 6’ (Face Off 6), ‘Dat Rung Phuong Nam’ (The Southern Forest), ‘Sieu Lua Gap Sieu Lay’ (Diamond-Cut-Diamond), and ‘Chi Chi Em Em 2’ (Sister Sister 2), bringing the total revenue to 1.13 trillion VND and far exceeding the old record set in 2019.

In addition, the film ‘Ben Trong Vo Ken Vang’ (Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell) by director Pham Thien An was surprisingly ranked 24th on the British Film Institute's list of the 50 best films of 2023. The film also helped director Pham Thien An win the Caméra d'Or (Golden Camera) Award at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Meanwhile, the film ‘Nhung Dua Tre Trong Suong’ (Children of the Mist) by young female director Ha Le Diem was named among 15 entries shortlisted for the Documentary Feature category at the 95th Academy Awards (Oscars).

Last year, the music industry was also heartened with the return of the Monsoon Music Festival, the Ho Chi Minh City International Music Festival (known as HOZO), the release of new albums by many celebrated singers, and the launch of music game shows which have attracted a lot of public attention. The advertising sector recently held a presentation ceremony for the Vietnam Creative Advertising Awards (Van Xuan Awards). Taking place at the national level for the first time, the event is expected to further drive the strong growth of an industry full of potential.

Above are some typical examples to demonstrate the rise of cultural industries in 2023, the positive signals indicating the strength of no-emission industries.

When grouped under the “cultural” umbrella, the creative industries are facing a hurdle to market entry. A product of cultural industries, which can be a film, an art exhibition, an online advertisement clip or a book, will not be regarded as a sheer product. It will be placed under the multiple lenses of regulators and the public.

For an ordinary commercial product, whether it is good or bad, its fate will be subject to market rules. Its market access will only rely on its creator’s business acumen towards consumer trends, market research capacity, research and development, production and marketing, and distribution. But a cultural product, before going to market, will first depend on the decision of the management agency - the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, not to mention cultural, ethical and socio-political standards are often controversial and can change over time. The public’s reception attitude often also determines the fate of a cultural industry product. This is not related to product quality but depends on the prejudices and subjective feelings of the public, especially the elite class - those who govern the emotions of the majority.

The essence of the value of cultural products lies in the creative capacity of the person - a director, a designer, an artist, a craftsman, a writer or digital content creator, etc. Creating new things often goes hand in hand with breaking old prejudices and old views. Creativity needs tolerance and acceptance to be able to create breakthrough products and develop. If conservatism does not accept rap into Trinh music or “Xam” singing – a traditional art form of northern-rural Vietnam, there will not be a Ha Le or Ha Myo. If Thanh Tien Paper Flower Village was only loyal to its cultural beliefs, there would not be a May Paperflower. If making a film from a literary work had to reproduce exactly what was written in the book, there would be no film 'Dat Rung Phuong Nam' (Southern Land).

The added value of cultural industry products depends on the intellectual property, copyright and related rights of its creators. However, our legal system protecting intellectual property and copyright is not operating according to the development trend of technology and the cultural market. Vietnam has all the necessary legal institutions and legal documents and participates in most international agreements related to intellectual property protection, but the problem is that enforcing intellectual property protection faces many difficulties. 

Algorithms and artificial intelligence are being quite effective in protecting creative assets on YouTube and Facebook. Although certain disputes still occur from time to time, these automated protection systems have helped significantly reduce copyright violations. But on other platforms, especially in offline forms such as performances, prints, and products, people whose copyrights are violated have almost no effective protection solutions. Civil disputes over intellectual property and copyright all drag on for a long time or never come to a satisfactory conclusion, causing a loss of trust from creators. Without an enforceable mechanism for reporting violations, creators choose influence from social networks rather than administrative intervention from authorised agencies.

The good news is that awareness of the important role of the creative industry - cultural industry in the Vietnamese economy is at a fairly high level, both from the perspective of state management and people’s awareness. In less than a decade, from being unnamed, the creative industry - cultural industry has entered the Party’s resolutions and Government’s strategies, and become the topic of discussion of many agencies, departments, sectors and localities. The cultural industry is considered one of the key economic sectors, expected to account for 7% of GDP in the near future.

However, to achieve that ambitious goal, awareness is not enough. Policies are needed to reduce the differences and inequalities between the 12 creative economic sectors and other manufacturing and service sectors. These are policies to establish and develop a complete market mechanism for the cultural industry.

Firstly, a policy system is needed to encourage a more favourable market entry for cultural products. Accordingly, the reduction of emotional administrative interventions by management agencies is an important factor in creating conditions for fair regulation in line with market mechanisms and encouraging investment in the field of culture and creativity. Investors and businessmen in the cultural industry must be considered an important productive force and given priority in policies related to tax capital mobilisation as well as support in marketing, issuance, and distribution.

Next, it is essential to have a system of tools to protect rights and intellectual property for creators. As mentioned above, a system of legal documents is necessary but not sufficient. What we lack is the enforcement of law, with policies and a public apparatus that are always on the side of cultural creators and choose intellectual property protection as the focus. 

It is time we really talk about action mechanisms for the development of the cultural industry.

Published: January 24, 2024
Content: LE QUOC VINH, Chairman of Le Group of Companies and Chairman of Creative Entrepreneurs' Club (VCE Club)
Design: NGOC BICH