Recommendations for Implementation Plan of the Government Programme
The National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries (NACCI) submitted recommendations for implementation plan of the 18th Lithuanian Government Programme. Firstly, the Association intended to motivate the Lithuanian Government to further develop and implement the instruments of the Future Economics Plan of Lithuania. One of the instruments is “Creative cheques” which aims to stimulate a purchase of original service decisions of creative and cultural industries (CCI). The other is “Creative and cultural industry inducement for creator friendly development of products and services in a circular economy; CCI digitalization.” According to the Chief of Board, the NACCI, Ms Živile Diawara, recommendations were prepared in close collaboration with different Lithuanian state institutions and non-governmental organizations, consultations and evaluations of top quality experts.
The Association recommends the Lithuanian Government to implement the appliances of “Electronic Government Design” program which is based on design thinking methods and is primarily directed to the needs of citizens, as well as “Cultural and Creative industries, science and innovations” program which aims to induce CCI innovation, science and knowledge in order to transmit development. The Association notices that implementation guidelines of 2015 Lithuanian architect and design policy development were not launched yet. The Association encourages the new Government to keep up this work as it has a special significance for design innovation.
The Association recommends the Government to allocate a separate financial support for school libraries maintenance and annually provide funds for book purchase. This recommendation is based on the fact that school libraries in Lithuania do not have a separate budget for book purchase. It happens then that status of each library book collection depends on school principal’s attitude and good will. In recent years many libraries undergo closure or were incorporated into public libraries. This makes children path towards books complicated. It is important to solve this problem so that the level of literacy and reading capacities of Lithuanian society remain high and steady. Scientific investigations prove reading is a basement of learning, understanding and critical thinking. A child who reads books, analyses text shows more capacity in mathematics, social science, nature and other areas.
The Association draws attention of the new Government to the lack of creative competences of teachers and recommends to solve this problem by introducing special teaching programs which focus on creative competencies of teachers. The Association recommends the Government to apply apprenticeship program in the culture sector, provide compensation for work in creative industry enterprises by arranging and coordinating creative practice for apprenticeship program participants.
“To make the cultural sector able to provide high quality professional creative practice for future CCI experts it is important to improve a creative practice by broadening the forms of apprenticeship, providing financial compensation of mentoring support and applying other measures. This matter is already solved in business enterprises where applied apprenticeship programs help future professionals to learn at work and get paid, when employer is able to shape new employee according to existing needs“, says the Chair of Board, the NACCI, Ms Živilė Diawara. The Association recommends to use the CCI potential to improve mental health of the society. Following an example of culture passport the Association offers to create a social passport which would aim at mental health improvement. Social passport would open the doors for the Lithuanian people to cultural and art services and products aimed at building a better mental wellbeing of the society.
In the recommendations for implementation plan of the Government Programme the Association points out the necessity to broaden an access of the CCI start-ups to financial resources. The Government should build a CCI accelerator and offer an insurance solutions and economic protection schemes for the enterprises investing into creative start-ups.
“The 18 Government declares the Programme is based on collaboration, openness, reliability and open communication principles. The implementation plan of the programme especially requires intersectoral collaboration. The National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries is ready to provide extended professional support and contribute to the coherent implementation of the programme,“ says Ms Diawara.
The National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries extended the recommendations for implementation plan of the Government Programme to the Lithuanian Government, Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, Ministry of Economics and Innovation, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Social Security and Labour and the Parliament Committee on Culture.