Minister of Culture Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) said that the ministry’s new Taiwan Creative Content Agency, due to open before the end of the month, would hopefully “turn Taiwanese culture into a new trend in Asia” within five years.
Officials from the ministry were presenting their plans for building a “cultural content industry ecosystem” at an Executive Yuan meeting in Taipei yesterday.
The Organizational Act of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (文化內容策進院設置條例) went into effect on Feb. 12, and last month, the ministry announced the agency’s board of directors.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
Deputy Minister of Culture Ting Hsiao-ching (丁曉菁) is to step down to serve as the chair of the board.
The agency would decide on an official opening date after a board meeting to be held by Saturday next week at the earliest, Cheng said.
The Executive Yuan’s National Development Fund would give the agency NT$10 billion (US$318.27 million) to invest on its behalf, she said.
In five years, the agency would hopefully be able to create a “Taiwan culture” brand, turning it into “a new trend in Asia,” Cheng said.
The agency encapsulates the various policy plans and tools the ministry has used to target the “cultural content industry” over the past three years, she said, adding that a subsidy and grant scheme already exist.
The agency hopes to encourage investment, especially with the funds given to it by the National Development Fund, Cheng said, adding that she is confident that more Taiwanese works will receive international exposure.
The ministry has already set up a team to prepare for the new agency’s opening, assisting it with the planning of its internal organization so that it meets the requirements of the act, and helping to draft its one-year, three-year and five-year plans, she said.
However, decisions would need to be made by the agency’s board of directors, Cheng said, adding that the ministry would also arrange a team to evaluate the agency.
The ministry created the cultural content agency and proposed a five-year plan, because the domestic culture industry is unable to effectively connect with the funds it needs, said Chen Yue-yi (陳悅宜), director of the ministry’s Department of Cultural and Creative Development.
Businesses in the industry do not have enough money; the government’s financial resources, including subsidies and investments, are limited; and private funds are unwilling to invest, resulting in a lack of productions and development of local themes, she said.
From the initial creation to the final product, the industry does not have a support system or enough channels to promote its work, Chen said.
It is missing an effective channel through which to promote work internationally, as well as domestically, and there is also no policy to improve the nation’s right to communicate domestic culture, she said.
Under the plan, within the first year of its establishment the agency is to set up a support system for the content industry, establish an effective mechanism for planning and implementing ideas and invest in productions, Chen said.
Within three years, it is to help increase the production of cultural content, and within five years, it is to shape an international content brand and enter the international market, she added.
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