In the Slovak Republic, there is no official definition of the “cultural industries” provided in either legislative or cultural policy documents. In acceding to the 2005 UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, one could argue that the Slovak Republic has officially accepted the definition of culture industries as provided for in Article 4 of the Convention. The issue of culture industries and the definitions of this concept have been taken up by several educational and research institutions in the Slovak Republic that have culture industry issues included in their study programmes or research plans (Arts and Science Faculty, Comenius University in Bratislava, Arts and Science Faculty, Prešov University, Mass-media Communications Faculty of the University of Sts. Cyril and Metod in Trnava, Slovak Academy of Sciences). However, these institutions do not have any specific educational or training programmes for culture managers or professionals working in the culture industries.
Research into the infrastructure of culture and the culture industries is partially undertaken at the Cultural Observatorium, which functions as a part of the National Centre of Public Education and Culture Národné osvetové centrum in Bratislava. As regards content, its research programme is primarily oriented to the area of local and regional culture.
The development of the culture industries, as one of the positive results of the informationisation of culture, is also emphasised in the conceptional materials of the Ministry of Culture referring to the informationisation of culture and its strategic development in the years 2007 – 2013.
The document Strategy for a National Culture Policy Stratégia štátnej kultúrnej politiky, which was approved by the government in 2004, also contains provisions relating to the culture industries. In light of the restricted possibilities to place credit and tax policies among the cultural policy financial instruments of cultural policy (advantaged or state-supported credits for investments in the area of culture and the selective reduction of taxes for cultural goods and services), it is imperative to create the conditions for the development of culture industries that are able to generate resources in the private sector. This intention may be achieved mainly through investment stimulants for enterprise in the culture industries and through investments in the building of the culture infrastructure. For this reason too, one of the goals of the culture policy should be to create the conditions for Ministry cooperation with bodies of local self-administration in cultural planning, through:
- motivation stimuli for investment in the culture industries and its infrastructure;
- monitoring of the development of revenues from the public finances budget for the development of the culture industries and infrastructure on anational, regional and local level; and
- uniting foundations in the process of renewal of the culture infrastructure, in connection with the development of the culture industries.
Regular monitoring of the culture industries does not occur in the Slovak Republic. The Statistics Office, in its basic classification of economic activities, includes performances in the area of culture in the joint entry “recreation, cultural and sports activities”. For 2006, the year-long yield of these activities amounted to almost 33 billion SKK (about 961 million euro), and the index of year-on-year growth for 2006 was 108.6.
Partial information on the activities of the individual areas of the culture industries (the publishing of non-periodic publications and print periodicals, television and radio broadcasting, production of audio / visual works) is contained in the statistical findings carried out by the Ministry of Culture. They lack the relevant data on the economic efficiency of the culture industries in Slovakia and on its infrastructure, which should be the starting-point for a strategic decision of culture policy in relation to further support and development of this sector.
Comments are closed.