During the video conference, President of Latvia stressed: ‘Culture is one of the sectors hit by the downtime. Culture sector will not be able to resume its full functioning any time soon. That is why we need to support it. Culture is key for the future of our nation. Society must be fully aware of that. It is crucial. Our nation state cannot exist without its own culture and constitution clearly states that.’
Egils Levits asked MoC and SCCF to elaborate on what kind of government support is already being provided and how MoC is planning to address the current issues that have been identified to make sure support reaches all those working in and managing the culture industry.
Minister Puntulis presented his vision on long-term future of the culture sector and infrastructure development plans to the President. President Levits underlined that crisis should not hamper the implementation of long-term development strategy, it should rather point to new approaches towards sector’s development, and long-term vision should facilitate faster and more meaningful exit from the crisis.
Virtual meeting also focused on the so-called ‘Roosevelt Plan’, a crisis exit plan for culture sector, which includes investments into generation of new culture content and better access to culture. According to the plan, long-term investments will enhance digital transformation and accessibility of culture. Funding will promote creative, film and design projects. There will be investments in acquisition of art objects. Data of the MoC shows that there is already good demand for #E-Culture products such as digitised theatre plays, periodicals, films and other creative products.
Participants of the meeting had a lengthy discussion about downtime benefits for creative industry workers and lessons learned from the crisis. Need to improve tax arrangements applicable to culture industry workers was one of the weaknesses identified during the conversation.
Egils Levits also asked MoC and SCCF about support to culture media. He pointed out that such support should become available in the long run as it would ensure better quality and would help facilitate the overall development of the sector.
