The Fourth Day of Cuban Culture in digital media, theoretical event underway in the Casa del ALBA Cultural capital since last November 11 that wraps up today , spent its penultimate theoretical debates issues of economy culture , Cuban creative industries and their relation to Information Technology and Communications.
Tania García Lorenzo, economist at the Juan Marinello Cuban Cultural Research Institute, explained how the Cuban cultural GDP grows at small scale, and is not consistent with the levels of creation. According to the researcher, one of the root causes of this mismatch is the digital divide that does not allow Cuban products to enter a global market position.
“Even when the Cuban National Statistics Office (ONE by its Spanish acronym) said that more than 4.2% of the country’s budgetary activity is intended for culture and art, cultural GDP represents only about 5 % of the total GDP of our country, and these figures have even one greater weight in total GDP than other sectors of our production , ” Garcia said.
Also, the specialist mentions statistics from the International Trade Centre (ITC) claiming that 40% of cultural products exported by Cuba correspond to the visual arts.
The state of the economy of culture in Cuba is not too far from the scene in Latin America, a continent whose cultural production only covers 11% of what is produced in the world in this respect. The ALBA, specifically, covers only 1.4% of that total, which says that there is no strong cultural industry in Latin America, Garcia says.
“Compared to Asia, Latin America is behind a quarter century in terms of productivity. Culture is being created in Latin America, but is been produced in other countries, “she highlighted.
Garcia said that 31% of the global creative products are generated by China. And that from 8 to 10% of global GDP is now generated from art creation.
Since its inception, the Fourth Day of Cuban Culture in digital media has had theoretical panels by leading writers, artists, economists, journalists and social researchers in the country. The panels have dealt with theoretical ethics in ciberjournalism, record labels and digital technology, the animated industry in Cuba, and other topics.
The Day of Cuban Culture in digital media is an event organized by Cubarte and Computing Center of Culture. The theoretical sessions for this edition will culminate tomorrow with the award ceremony Digital Palma 2013, as part of the celebrations for the 20th anniversary of Cubarte.
The Digital Palm Award was first awarded in 2010 and is intended to recognize the websites and multimedia productions that show the best hypermedia language appropriated to meet their communication goals.
This year two new categories were introduced to compete. One of them recognizes the best personal sites and blogs with cultural profile and the other rewards the best radio station on the web. The remaining categories are: thematic portals and websites specializing in cultural, digital cultural publications, and multimedia cultural products.
