Building Vietnamese cultural centers abroad must ensure feasibility, efficiency, and suitability.

On November 1, continuing the 8th Session, the National Assembly discussed in the hall the investment policy of the National Target Program on Cultural Development for the period 2025-2035. In particular, the content on investing in the construction of a number of Vietnamese cultural centers abroad received the attention of many National Assembly deputies.

According to delegate Tran Thi Thanh Huong (An Giang delegation), building cultural centers in other countries is a trend in many countries around the world, thereby contributing to promoting the image of the country and its cultural people, while also contributing to the process of attracting investment and promoting tourism...

This is also one of the urgent needs in the process of comprehensive and deep international integration of Vietnam.

Delegates agreed with the Government's proposal on regulating the content of implementing the task of investing in building a number of Vietnamese cultural centers abroad in the National Target Program.

However, it is recommended that the Government should immediately pay attention to choosing countries that have long-term cultural relations with Vietnam, have a large number of Vietnamese people living, working, studying, and have leading partners in direct investment in Vietnam.

At the same time, the Government needs to more carefully assess the content, scope, scale, and balance of resources to determine the list and implementation roadmap to ensure feasibility, effectiveness, and suitability with existing resources.

Expressing support for the above policy, delegate Nguyen Anh Tri (Hanoi delegation) also suggested carefully considering the necessity and effectiveness, because in essence this is cultural export, cultural promotion, which depends greatly on the cultural taste, preferences, and even the political issues of that country, and the relationship between the two countries.

Delegate Nguyen Anh Tri (Hanoi delegation) speaks. (Photo: DUY LINH)

“If built, it is necessary to ensure high dual-use, that is culture, performance, exhibition, conference, seminar, fair, meeting..., and not only we use it but you also use it, this is very important to increase efficiency”, the delegate noted.

In particular, the delegate emphasized that construction should only be done when the expected revenue is enough to cover the costs, because building now may have program funding, but later on, there must be funding from the center's activities to cover maintenance, upkeep, upgrading, including land rental costs... in order for the center to exist long-term.

Regarding the form of investment, delegate Huynh Thi Hang Nga (Tra Vinh delegation) agreed with the policy of investing and building a Vietnamese cultural center abroad in the form of public investment, but suggested not using capital from the National Target Program but using other state budget capital to reserve investment resources for other goals of the program.

Regarding the content not yet regulated in the Law on Public Investment, delegates suggested that when amending the Law on Public Investment at this Session, the Government should add the task of investing in the construction of a number of Vietnamese cultural centers abroad, because this content is beyond the scope of regulations in Clause 9, Article 4 of the Law on Public Investment.

Sharing the same concern, delegate Nguyen Van Canh (Binh Dinh delegation) said that Vietnam needs to build a national identity and improve the quality of cultural products to serve the activities of cultural centers abroad to increase efficiency.

The delegate suggested that in the section on promoting the role of Vietnamese cultural centers abroad, it is necessary to add a detailed content to introduce the cultural identity and cultural characteristics of Vietnamese ethnic groups to the world. According to the delegate, in addition to what is stipulated by law, the Vietnamese identity also includes national costumes, national flowers, national instruments, national dances, national martial arts, national wine, national cuisine, etc.

Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung explained and clarified a number of issues raised by National Assembly deputies. (Photo: DUY LINH)

Speaking to explain and clarify some of the contents raised by delegates, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Nguyen Van Hung said that the construction of Vietnamese cultural centers abroad will be based on agreements between the two governments, based on the issue of relations according to the principle of equality, while giving priority to countries with which Vietnam has a comprehensive strategic partnership.

According to the Minister, the centers are the presence of Vietnamese culture abroad and through them we can promote, preserve and introduce Vietnamese culture, and they are truly the common cultural home of our overseas Vietnamese. In the immediate future, the Government will select 3-5 necessary centers that must be prioritized in order of implementation and on the basis of the principle of equality.

Nhandan.vn

Source: https://nhandan.vn/xay-dung-trung-tam-van-hoa-viet-nam-tai-nuoc-ngoai-can-bao-dam-kha-thi-hieu-qua-phu-hop-post842593.html