Government to invest more in creative industry

In a bid to reap more from the creative and cultural arts, the Government is planning to inject more funds into the industry, the Minister for Trade, Industry, and East African Affairs, Francois Kanimba, said yesterday. Kanimba was addressing members of the creative and cultural arts industry drawn from different countries around the world in a workshop organised by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC) that is underway in Kigali. CISAC works to promote creative and artistic fields; music, audiovisual, drama, literature and visual arts globally. The confederation’s main aim is to secure fair remuneration for creators for the use of their works anywhere in the world. Kanimba told the members that the government recognises the important role creative industry plays in promoting the economy, especially in terms of employment, and it was working on a plan to see how the industry can be self-sustaining in the long term. “There is a plan to inject money in the arts. Even if it’s clear that the artists need support, it’s important to find ways for the industry to be self-supportive. The challenge is how to achieve that,” he said. CISAC director general, Gadi Oron, told those present that though there was still lots of work to be done in terms of awareness, there had been some improvement. “We have noticed an improvement in the awareness levels of policy and decision-makers about the importance of supporting the local industry but there is enormous work that still needs to be done,” he said. He called on radio stations that continue to broadcast music without paying the singers to remember that they were discouraging the artistes and the development of the industry itself. “Radio stations that broadcast music without paying are not playing fair. They are holding back the development of the creative industries by denying the authors to earn a living from their work,” he said. Responding to questions on whether Rwanda had enough material to encourage the reading culture, Samuel Sangwa, a Rwandan author and CISAC regional director for Africa, was adamant that the books were available but face the risk of dwindling in number, if compensation is not considered soon enough. “For people to be able to read, we need material. When you look at the Rwandan landscape, the number of books which are out here are many. What we need to have are incentives and remuneration for the author. ‘‘All people do is make copies of the books and, at the end of the day, no one is interested in continuing to work for free,” he said. Earlier this year, Rwanda Development Board announced its intention to enforce the copyright law adopted in December 2009 to help creative industries to grow and subsequently contribute to the economy significantly. Businesses using copyrighted music of Rwandan artistes were expected to start paying royalities this month. The tariffs will depend on the users’ gross revenue and gross budget for particularly public media houses. The first phase is expected to focus on musical works but at a later stage be extended to other copyrighted material such as literary works, books, computer-related works, fine art and cinema. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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Government to invest more in creative industry