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I would like to welcome you and thank you warmly for your presence here at the press conference of the Ministry of State for Culture on the Youth Culture Card. A measure which I announced in my pre-election programme and which is being implemented as of today, giving young people who have reached the age of 18 the opportunity to get closer to culture and contemporary artistic creation in our country.
The Youth Culture Card, which starts to be issued from today, demonstrates in practice our commitment to implementing what I promised during the election campaign, and in particular our willingness to give substantial support to the arts sector and encourage even more young people to discover the richness of our country's culture.
This is a prepaid card along the lines of those used in other Member States of the European Union, which we hope will encourage our young people to seek quality entertainment by attending cultural events such as events, concerts, theatre productions, film screenings, dance performances and visits to cultural venues and museums.
Our aim is to give our youth the opportunity to immerse themselves in culture and develop their creativity and sensitivity to the arts, while promoting wit and critical thinking. After all, contact with the culture of our country is vital because it links us to the identity and history of our homeland.
At the same time, through our initiative, the State indirectly supports the cultural sector itself and artistic creation in general. In essence, through these prepaid cards we are enhancing participation in cultural performances and events by encouraging the cultural institutions of our country to continue to create, promoting the diversity of our culture.
The Youth Culture Card is a novelty for Cypriot standards, since for the first time on such a large scale the state gives young people of 18 years of age the opportunity to attend cultural events of their own choosing, with state sponsorship, and how they will use this card. We hope that this small step we are taking today will be our guide for a bigger leap ahead, as our goal is to continue this measure, opening the door of culture to more children and young people in our country.
We are piloting this measure for the year 2024, so that we can evaluate it and then evolve it. The available state budget for issuing the Youth Culture Card is €2,000,000 with more than 10,000 young people in our country benefiting from it. It is important that we manage to promote, to the greatest extent possible and always within our budgetary possibilities, social participation and cultural education, regardless of the economic background of each individual.
A state's policy should not be isolated from culture. The decision of the previous government to establish the Ministry of State for Culture, which should have existed years ago, was particularly important. Unfortunately, culture has for too long been the poor relation. Culture is not just a rich, as some people think, distant treasure that we look at with respect, but the driving force that leads us towards development and progress. On the one hand, culture can have a multiplier effect on the development and enhancement of our education; on the other hand, it can be an important contributor to sectors such as tourism and, more generally, to the economic development and progress of our country.
This is particularly true when culture represents a significant competitive advantage for the country. And this is true for our country. Our Cyprus has an immense cultural heritage, while the dynamics of contemporary creativity have potential to open up horizons at an international level. There are neighbouring states - and here I also invoke my status as a former Foreign Minister - that have managed to acquire a very positive image of their country by exploiting culture.
I am confident that the State Ministry of Culture, as an independent, flexible and autonomous administrative structure, building on all that has been done previously, will be able to contribute to these objectives and bear even more mature fruit in the near future for our arts and culture, through policies and actions such as the one we are launching today.
In conclusion, allow me to address our thanks to the Cyprus Youth Organization for the excellent cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and for the information it will provide to the youth, through you, in order for this measure to achieve its objectives.
I would also like to address thanks to the Bank of Cyprus, which has been entrusted with the implementation of this project. However, I would particularly like to thank it for its additional contribution, as part of its social responsibility, which increased the amount available for the Youth Culture Card, thus contributing to our efforts to promote and, by extension, the progress and development of our culture.
With this, before I give the floor to the Deputy Minister of Culture for further details on the Youth Culture Card, I would like to invite all young people who have reached the age of 18 to apply immediately, so that in this way they can take advantage of all that is offered through the Youth Culture Card and discover the rich culture of our country.
(RM/EP/AF)
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