Govt unveils arts and culture industry blueprint

The government has vowed to leverage Hong Kong's strengths to make the SAR an international cultural exchange centre, as it unveiled a development plan with dozens of measures for the city's creative industries. The Blueprint for Arts and Culture and Creative Industries Development spells out four key directions -- promoting Chinese culture, developing diverse creative industries, building an international platform for cultural exchanges, and refining the ecosystem for creative industries. It also includes 71 measures covering industries such as film, music, and television. Around half of the initiatives have commenced, with the remaining beginning from next year. The ultimate goal, the administration said, is to turn Hong Kong into an "East-meets-West" centre for international cultural exchange. Culture, sports and tourism minister Kevin Yeung on Tuesday said the blueprint is a "macro policy document" that is not "cast in stone". Authorities hope the economic benefit generated by creative industries will go from HK$122 billion in 2022 to HK$200 billion by 2034. Another goal is for the number of jobs generated by such sectors to rise from more than 220,000, to 264,000 over the same period.