Cultural industry facilitates creativity

The phrase “cultural industry” was first mentioned in Decision No. 581 / QD-TTg issued on May 6, 2009 which approved cultural development strategy up to 2020.

Nocenco Cafe, located on the rooftop of a seven-floor building in central Nghe An Province's Vinh Town, has been honored with the Architecture Master Prize (AMP) from the Farmani Group, an organization that curates and promotes art, design and architecture across the globe. (Photo: VnExpress)
Nocenco Cafe, located on the rooftop of a seven-floor building in central Nghe An Province's Vinh Town, has been honored with the Architecture Master Prize (AMP) from the Farmani Group, an organization that curates and promotes art, design and architecture across the globe. (Photo: VnExpress)

The document refers to the policy on rapidly developing the cultural industry, recommending many important cultural policies in Vietnam.

The cultural industry covers many creativity-related fields, such as publishing, architecture, fine arts, photography, and advertising.

Although it has been included in many legal documents, the cultural industry in Vietnam is a fledgling one as there have been several copyright infringement cases in art creation, movies, and media.

In addition, the public has not yet got a clear impression about the cultural industry. Many people think that intellectual property is the core value of the cultural industry, implying the creation of an environment for "products" to be transferred, exchanged, and purchased.

This thinking is correct, but not enough. In fact, there are many “products” which derive from the creative process which cannot be quantified in order that the creators can enjoy their reward.

For example, several localities and communities are benefited from being chosen as the locations for films. Filmmakers gain money through the box office while tourist agencies and travel businesses gain benefit directly from visitors to the filming places. In fact, tourists and travel agencies do not have to pay a dime for the advertising of the films or the filmmakers’ artistic creations.

It is even more difficult to control and manage the copying of paintings and pictures, the rewriting of songs’ lyrics, and adaptions in architecture, where original creators are not getting paid for their creativity.

Meanwhile, the cultural industry, as well as the sports industry and others are not unfamiliar concepts to people in the world. Tourist businesses in Thailand have established connections to equally share the benefits for those operating in a similar tourist destination. Several countries such as Japan and the Republic of Korea have paid due credit to their cultural industry.

Cultural industry has also been turned into a "soft power" in many countries in order to advertise to the world, having reaped many benefits from the spreading of this cultural value.

The policy of our Party is to develop the cultural industry in order to promote the potential and distinct values of Vietnamese culture; encourage the export of cultural products and contribute to advertising Vietnamese culture to the world.

Vietnam's global innovation index has continuously increased in recent years as the country is currently ranked 42nd out of 131 countries and economies worldwide. In particular we have taken advantage of our tourist potential to make Vietnam one of the 10 most attractive destinations in the world. The development of tourism and services has also helped us to mobilise resources to preserve and promote the value of our cultural heritage.

It is important for functional agencies to provide further support and sponsor creativity and innovation; increase communication and the dissemination of laws to prevent violations of copyright and intellectual property, thus making the cultural industry truly a trend across the world. In addition, the community needs to condemn acts of copyright infringement and imitation in creative products, particularly in the field of culture.