Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi hopes to createa new driving force for the local culture industry, a sector with untappedpotential.

The capital is home to 5,900 relic sites andmore than 1,700 intangible cultural heritage assets that can serve as culturaltourism attractions.

The Imperial Citadel, the Temple of Literature,the President Ho Chi Minh relic site, Ngoc Son Temple, Hoan Kiem Lake, the OldQuarter and Duong Lam ancient village on the city’s outskirts are among must-seedestinations for tourists in Hanoi.

Intangible cultural heritage assets like waterpuppetry, ca tru singing, cai luong (reformed opera), cheo (popular opera) andchau van singing have become familiar to Hanoians and tourists. The Thang LongWater Puppet Theatre, which offers performances year round, is deemed a successstory in arts business.

Meanwhile, the presence of both the State andprivate sectors in the cinema system is believed to help develop the filmindustry.

However, activities using cultural advantages togenerate economic benefits in Hanoi are still small scale and asynchronous.Despite the large number of relics, only a handful of destinations have beenutilized for tourism. Meanwhile, water puppetry is the only intangible culturalheritage currently drawing significant interest.

Most theatres in Hanoi still struggle to attractan audience. Additionally, there is a lack of economic activities in the fieldsof fine arts, photography and architecture.

Facing that fact, the city has issued a plan toimplement a development strategy for the local culture industry until 2020,with a vision to 2030.

Per the plan, the culture industry is hoped togain higher revenue, create more jobs and improve city dwellers’ ability tobenefit from culture. Notably, Hanoi targets about 5 million USD in revenue inthe performing arts sector and 10 – 15 percent of total tourism revenue comingfrom cultural tourism annually. It also plans to upgrade cinemas to attract 0.8– 1.2 million visitors every year.

More efforts will be made to turn architecture,design, publication, fine arts, photography and exhibitions into importantservice sectors. However, it will be not easy to achieve those targets when thecurrent status of the local culture industry is put into consideration.

Pham Duy Duc, former Director of the Instituteof Culture and Development under the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics,said Hanoi should improve the capacity of culture-related companies andconsider them the focus of this industry.

Other experts said aside from raising publicawareness, the city should fine-tune capital, tax and land incentives forculture-related firms and encourage artists’ creativity and businesses’investment in this field. They also stressed the importance of high-qualityhuman resources in the culture industry’s development.

Nguyen Van Truc, head of the arts managementdivision of the municipal Department of Culture and Sports, said they aretaking measures to boost the culture industry, including coordinating withagencies to support enterprises and organisations in the field.-VNA