Ukraine/ 4.2 Specific policy issues and recent debates  

4.2.3 Cultural/creative industries: policies and programmes

There is no clear definition of the cultural industries in Ukraine. The first mention of "cultural industries" appeared in the Law of Ukraine on the Conceptual Framework of the Public Cultural Policy of Ukraine (2005). The Law on Culture, which had been under discussion for 7 years and was adopted by the Parliament in December 2010 (signed by the President in January, 2011), has no mention of "cultural industries". The Law offers the following formulation: "cultural wealth is goods and services produced in the course of activities in the sphere of culture to satisfy cultural needs of citizens (books, audio and visual products (music recordings), works of art and documents on new information-carrying media, crafts, theatre and circus performances, concerts, cultural and educational services, etc.)".

Government support measures are addressed mainly to film production, book publishing and crafts. There are no specific training and education programmes for culture industry professionals.

Since 2011 the conditions for cinematography development in Ukraine have improved significantly, first of all, in terms of financial support: the state support (government expenses) was increased along with favourable tax benefits introduced by the new Tax Code of Ukraine for the National Film Industry – from production to demonstration. At the same time, the 2013 State Budget envisages some decrease in cinematography financing compared to 2012 (UAH 157 million (planned) compared with 172.1 million (planned), while the actual 2012 state budget expenses constituted 145.9 million).

Table 3:     State Budget expenses for film production and distribution, in million UAH, 2006-2012

Source:     State Treasury of Ukraine, 2012.

In 2011, the new established State Film Agency organised the open contest for government funding for film production, the results of which will make up the National film production and distribution programme.

In 2013, film clubs of the Donbass region will realie the educational programme "From film to action" addressed to young people. Within the programme, human rights advocates and experts on culture will provide information on human rights and democratic values. 48 films will be shown, 2 festivals and 3 workshops will be held during the programme which is realised by the Literary Group STAN with support by European Commission and Microsoft Corporation.

In 2008, the Cabinet of Ministers made a proposal to local authorities that they increase the number of bookshops on their territories. The government defined the following minimum standards: one bookshop for 20 000 inhabitants in large cities, one bookshop or book department for 5-10 000 inhabitants in towns, and one bookshop for 5 000 inhabitants in villages and settlements. In comparison: currently there is one bookshop in Ukraine per 96 000 inhabitants, while in Russia there is one bookshop per 75 000, and in France one bookshop per 20 000 inhabitants. According to the data of the Book Chamber of Ukraine, in 2012, Ukrainian publishers produced 0.74 books per capita compared to 1.2 books in 2007. Books (number of titles) in Russian language increased by 45% in 2012 compared with 2011, and the number of copies increased by 80%; as for Ukrainian language books, their number of titles increased by 10% in 2012 compared with 2011, and the number of copies increased by 31% (see also Table 6, chapter 4.2.5).

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