YES to cultural exports

YES!–Proposal for Finland’s Cultural Export Promotion Programme 2007-2011, drawn up in cooperation by three ministries, was launched on Thursday 1 March. The proposal, compiled under the leadership of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, outlines Finland’s strategy for the export of culture, and is the first of its kind. Amidst an impressive ceremony, the programme was handed over to Tanja Saarela, Minister of Culture, at the Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art. Alongside Minister Saarela, Ministers Mauri Pekkarinen, Paula Lehtomäki and Erkki Tuomioja were also present at the event.

Three years ago the report drawn up for the Ministry of Education by Hannele Koivunen asked the question:  Do Finnish Cultural Exports Have Staying Power? The proposal now published answers the question with an emphatic YES!. The vision for Finnish cultural exports in the year 2011 as outlined by the YES! report is as follows:

“Cultural exports will have grown into an acknowledged part of Finnish exports. The value of cultural exports will have at least tripled and the creative sectors will have made the structure of industry and commerce more varied. They will also have created new jobs. Culture will form a distinctively more pronounced part of Finland’s country image and brand. The economic wellbeing of individuals and groups working in cultural sectors will have improved through cultural exports.”

According to Director General Petri Tuomi-Nikula, who headed the working group, “the working group’s most important insight pertains to cooperation and distribution of tasks between creative sectors and administration.” The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Trade and Industry have been the engines of the working group, but representatives of, among others, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of the Interior, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation Tekes, Finpro and the Finnish Tourist Board MEK have also taken part in forging of the programme.

Promotion and information centres from the various cultural sectors, in turn, have made a vital contribution by defining the central strategic goals in their respective fields for the term of the coming Government. The programme, in condensed form, contains the export strategies for eleven different cultural sectors: film; other culture in the audiovisual sector; literature; cultural tourism; fine art; design; the museum sector; music; games; dance; and theatre.

Effectiveness and synergy in exports

The ministries’ task is to create favourable preconditions for the development of exports in the cultural sector; each within the sphere of its own special competence. For instance, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs is the body with partial responsibility, among others, in joint projects aiming to increase exportation know-how, in support for major export events and in developing cooperation between Finland’s foreign missions and Finnish cultural institutions. In general, YES! strives to avoid the creation of new, cumbersome bureaucratic structures and to utilise primarily existing systems and structures.

On the whole, YES! would cost 228 million euros, of which only about 64 million would be additional financing above the current level. The programme stresses that this input would not be gratuitous assistance but rather an investment which, when goals are realised, would repay itself many times over. Thanks to these features, the proposals of the YES! report, in Tuomi-Nikula’s view, will increase the volume of Finnish cultural exports and the resulting material and immaterial benefits to a totally new plane.

Thanks from Ministers

Few publication events are attended by four Ministers. Furthermore, all of the Ministers present commended the working group’s achievements, at the same time opening up different perspectives. Minister Saarela praised the depth and breadth of cooperation among the various parties and stated that the proposal is full of concrete substance. Mauri Pekkarinen, Minister of Trade and Industry, thanked the ways in which the YES! Report had taken account of the central role played by business, commercialisation, and other business know-how also in cultural exports. Culture and economics aren’t entities that exclude one another. 

Paula Lehtomäki, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, emphasised the efficient utilisation of already existing know-how, open-mindedness and mind-set clearly revealed by the programme’s new outlines and diversity. Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs, brought up the significance of culture in public diplomacy and its position as an increasingly central form of soft use of power. According to Tuomioja, Finnish foreign missions are small cultural centres operating abroad, whose cultural activities will be more dynamic in future. Finally, the Ministers unanimously assured that the development programme would be included in the programme of the coming Government.

The event ended in speeches from representatives of cultural export sectors. Asko Kallonen of the Helsinki Music Company described the challenges facing music exports. Film director Mika Taanila of Kinotar Oy talked about international demand as motivation for artists. Yrjö Sotamaa and Sanna Rekola brought the views of the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK and the Taive network for cultural information centres. The Duudsons, whose world conquest has already begun, called for an increase in support for cultural exports that would raise it to the level of subsidies for the forest industry – naturally with a twinkle of humour in the eyes.

YES!–Proposal for Finland’s Cultural Export Promotion Programme 2007-2011