The annual Nghinh Ông (Whale Worship) Festival held in Cần Giờ District in HCM City was recognised as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2013. — VNA/VNS Photo Thu Hương

HCM CITY — HCM City People’s Committee has recently approved a project to develop the south-eastern city’s culture industry by 2030.

The project focuses on building key cultural products, exploiting the economic potential of culture, strengthening creativity and innovation, and enhancing competitiveness in international economic integration.

Under the project, the city will be developed into a centre for the culture industry of the country and region in the 2021-25 period.

The city will focus on investing resources, encouraging socialisation, and developing areas that have advantages that contribute to the city’s gross regional domestic product (GRDP), such as advertising, fashion, exhibitions, movies, and cultural tourism.

It will develop the performing arts, photography, and exhibitions into important service industries to contribute to the city’s socio-economic development.

In the 2026-30 period, the project aims to synchronously develop diversified and modern culture industries in the city in a sustainable manner with high-tech applications, and develop the city into a culture industry centre of Southeast Asia.

The city’s cultural services and products will become regional and globally recognisable brands meeting the standards of developed countries and deeply participating in the value chain of cultural products and services in regional and international markets.

The city will create favourable conditions to attract resources from businesses and society at home and abroad, build a market for cultural products and services, develop groups of quality cultural services, connect networks in the culture industry through database integration to link organisations, individuals and public forces.

It will focus on the construction, supplementation, and completion of policies and mechanisms related to the development of modern infrastructure and technology, and the issuance of specific mechanisms for businesses who seek sustainable and long-term investment.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh Thúy, deputy director of the HCMC Department of Culture and Sports, said the city needs to pay attention to the construction of an ecosystem for the culture industry, and an appropriate distribution strategy of products to enhance revenue from performing arts and cinema activities.

The city should promote and export literary and artistic works to international markets, according to the city’s Cinematography Association chairwoman Dương Cẩm Thủy.

The development of the culture industry is becoming an urgent requirement in building and developing culture.

Many countries have developed their culture industry on a professional level. Developed nations have applied culture to pave the way for economic activities.

The cultural industry is a fast-growing sector and attracts a lot of attention from countries. It is regarded as a breakthrough field in the national development strategy.

HCM City has around 17,670 businesses operating in the cultural sector, accounting for 7.7 per cent of the total number of enterprises in the city.

In 2010, the production value of the city’s culture industry reached more than VNĐ36 trillion (US$1.46 billion), more than VNĐ84 trillion ($3.4 billion) in 2019, and VNĐ77.2 trillion ($3.2 billion) in 2020 despite the difficulties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The contribution of culture industry production to the city's GRDP reached 3.8 per cent in 2010 and 3.9 per cent in 2019, of which the advertising industry had the largest contribution.

In 2020, the production value of the city’s culture industry saw low growth and gained VNĐ36.7 trillion ($1.5 billion), accounting for 3.5 per cent of the city's GRDP due to the pandemic but was still higher than the country's GDP target of 3 per cent. — VNS