Arts, culture should generate incomes for Mozambique

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza urged thousands of cultural agents in the country to use their cultural skills to generate income for the country's economy in order to improve all the citizens' living conditions.

The president made the remarks at the opening of the Cultural Festival, the biggest event in the country taking place in the central province of Manica and gathering most of Mozambique's main figures in the sector.

Guebuza said the country should economically develop its cultural activities and make use of the profits on behalf of the artists and contribute to develop the sector, the Maputo daily paper Noticias reported.

The president said it is important to overcome some challenges first, the major one is to believe that arts and culture can generate income, afterwards capacitate culture agents to promote the industry and also coordinate with private and public entities including the government, to create legislations to protect their rights.

"This is one of the sectors that we should pay attention. We should create laws to protect author's rights and fight against piracy, because this does not affect only the cultural agents but the entire system," said president Guebuza.

The 2010 Cultural Festival brings different sorts of activities, among them traditional music, theatre, literature, and dancing.

Mozambique holds some of the world's cultural heritage awarded by UNESCO. One of them is "Timbila" which is a dance and instrument, originally from Inhambane province in the southern region of the country.

Source: Xinhua