Following a presentation by the Ministry of Culture (MOC) on its efforts to engineer an ecosystem for the cultural content industry, Premier Su Tseng-chang on Thursday said that cultural content lies at the core of the cultural creativity industry, and that it is the government's responsibility to establish a structure for training creative cultural talent and setting a stage to put that creativity on display.
For the past two years the MOC has been integrating resources available at various ministries and agencies, said Premier Su. In addition to drawing on the National Development Fund, both the special budget for the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program and the science and technology budget have been tapped for funds. This money subsidizes the production of film and television programming that have yielded several break-out hits, with more expected to come. By coupling domestic production and international distribution, global media giants like HBO, Netflix and Fox have taken notice and are pursuing joint financing and production deals.
Working together to develop the cultural content industry, cooperating ministries and agencies have already achieved preliminary results. The premier directed the MOC and other responsible agencies to carry on with current efforts, raise the proportion of domestically produced content, and improve the infrastructure and facilities necessary for content creation.
The Organizational Act of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency took effect on February 12 of this year, Premier Su said, and plans call for the agency itself to be inaugurated sometime before the end of June. In the role of a national champion for creative content, the agency will bring the government and private sector together to provide strong backing and assistance for outstanding artists and innovators, so that audiences around the world will have the chance to enjoy even more of the amazing work coming out of Taiwan. All the while, the nation's cultural content industry will continue its sustainable development to grow in both size and strength.