Hai Phong is strongly developing the cultural industry to exploit the economic value of culture, to become one of the resources for the development of the country and the city.
The cultural industry is identified as one of the key economic sectors of Hai Phong City.
Hai Phong - a bustling port city, is not only famous for its position as an important economic and logistics center of the North, but also possesses a rich and unique culture.
This place possesses abundant cultural heritage resources with nearly 1,000 historical and cultural relics. Notably, these include the Cat Ba archipelago World Natural Heritage, 2 special national relics, 117 national relics and 435 city-level relics. At the same time, Hai Phong also has more than 400 festivals at all levels, 10 festivals and 1 folk performing art included in the list of national intangible cultural heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. 2 cultural heritages are recognized by UNESCO as representative intangible cultural heritage of humanity and heritage in need of urgent protection...
In particular, Hai Phong also has more than 20 antiques recognized as national treasures - a rare number that no other locality has. In addition, the city has traditional craft villages such as Duong Dong pottery village, Kien Bai incense making village, Bao Ha statue carving village, My Dong casting village...
With a rich history, diverse heritage system, traditional craft villages, special festivals, unique performing arts, and the intersection of maritime culture and industrial culture, Hai Phong has great potential to develop cultural industry to become one of the important economic pillars of the city.
Hai Phong currently has more than 400 festivals at all levels, 10 festivals and 1 folk performing art included in the list of National Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Commenting on this, Mr. Nguyen Nam Phuong - Deputy Director of Vietravel Hai Phong Branch said: "Building a cultural industry must be to turn those resources into unique cultural products so that we can exploit them.
In Hai Phong, the annual Red Flamboyant Festival, art programs at Nha Ken and weekend street art events have created an experiential public entertainment space, attracting a large number of people and tourists. The locality has also implemented a bright theater program - bringing stage shows, reformed opera, music and dance into television and online broadcast time slots, helping to increase the coverage of art... These activities have promoted the development of the cultural industry, contributing to increasing the attractiveness of the destination, gradually promoting the development of cultural tourism".
Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hoai Son - National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Society said that Hai Phong City has made many efforts to exploit this potential, especially in the fields of cultural tourism, cinema, performing arts, and creative media. However, the reality shows that Hai Phong's cultural industry has not yet developed commensurate with its available potential. Cultural industry is still mainly seen as artistic activities, festival events, and is not considered a real economic sector that can create high added value. The integration of cultural industry development into socio-economic development planning, tourism, urban areas, etc. is still fragmented, failing to create an integrated cultural and creative ecosystem. Infrastructure supporting cultural creativity such as exhibition spaces, creative studios, contemporary art performance spaces, creative design centers, handicraft markets, etc. has not yet received proper investment.
Focus on "awakening" potential
In fact, Hai Phong City has been focusing on directing the development of culture in general and the cultural industry in particular. From there, turning culture into a development resource, turning heritage into a tourism product, contributing to the socio-economic development of Hai Phong in the present and the future.
Hai Phong City has “awakened” the potential of the cultural industry by reorganizing community-based cultural activities and commercializing cultural products. At the same time, focusing on allocating the budget to the cultural and sports sectors. Many cultural and sports facilities have been invested in by localities to be renovated, upgraded and newly built, and put into effective operation.
In addition to allocating resources from the state budget, the socialization of cultural and sports activities has also been focused on and received the support and companionship of businesses located in the area, contributing to creating important resources for cultural development.
Inviting famous artists to participate in major programs and activities of Hai Phong City has attracted a large number of people and tourists.
However, according to experts, to develop the cultural industry in Hai Phong, it is necessary to identify culture as a type of resource, then need technology and processes to exploit that resource. When exploiting, there must be unique products from which economic and educational benefits can be obtained. This is a good suggestion for Hai Phong to have policies and strategies to attract the cooperation in developing culture of "three houses": managers, scientists and investors. In particular, the merger of Hai Duong and Hai Phong in the near future will open up great opportunities to develop the cultural industry.
According to Associate Professor Dr. Bui Hoai Son, the Central Government's orientation is that Hai Phong will expand its administrative boundaries through the planned merger with Hai Duong province. This is not simply an event in administrative organization, but also a turning point for the city to reshape its comprehensive development vision, in which cultural industry needs to be considered a sustainable pillar alongside industry, seaports, logistics and smart cities. Restructuring the state management apparatus in the spirit of "streamlining - compactness - strength - efficiency - effectiveness - efficiency" requires not only innovation in administrative management thinking but also an approach to culture as a resource, a foundation and a competitive advantage. In that context, developing cultural industry cannot be a sideline option, but must become a consistent strategy, leading both the depth of identity and the breadth of integration.
According to the national target program on cultural development for the period 2025-2035, the goal is to strive for cultural industries to contribute 8% of the country's GDP by 2035. Although it is only in the initial stage and there are still many obstacles and challenges, Hai Phong is showing the right steps in gradually shaping and developing the cultural industry through renewing traditional products as well as building new, unique products.
Ms. Tran Thi Hoang Mai - Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Hai Phong said that with abundant cultural resources, the owners of heritage destinations have been constantly building impressive cultural products with rich identities from their own materials. This not only helps to honor and promote destinations, but also contributes to inspiring creativity from heritage resources. And Hai Phong is implementing specific goals for the development of cultural industries.