The Ministry of Culture is an absolutely new ministry, regrettably, said Minister of Culture Sergiu Prodan. He noted that when the ministries were merged, culture was integrated into education, research, youth and sport. Currently, the Ministry employs six persons who deal with two areas of activity: heritage and arts. “With these six persons, we started to build a new ministry,” the minister stated in an interview for RFE/RL’s Moldovan Service, being quoted by IPN.
According to the official, the Ministry is to have 34 employees, but this staff is not enough for normal activity. However, not even these 35 posts were filled. The minister called on those who are ready to lend a hand to come to the Ministry of Culture and help to develop culture.
In another development, Sergiu Prodan said that what is happening today to the historical monuments points to the level of involvement, to the level of culture. The situation in this sector is difficult, but the ministry is the advocate of historical monuments and will protect them.
He noted that no theater hall has been built in Moldova during the 30 years of independence, if only one hall that was erected with Romanian funds in Cahul, but this is not yet fully over. The project to build a multistory car park in Chisinau, which was authorized by the National Council of Historical Monuments of the Ministry of Culture, is full of mistakes.
According to Sergiu Prodan, arts should bring value added. Arts are a very expensive, but profitable sphere if enough attention is devoted to it. Now Moldova needs a vehicle that would help it export artistic products.
The official said the Ministry of Culture is starting a very ambitious digitization process of archives in Moldova and will ultimately form the National Film Archive based on the cinematography law’s provisions adopted four-five years ago. In the future, there will be introduced a new diplomatic title – ambassador with special missions in culture. Besides the salary of ambassador, the person will have the title of ‘excellency’ and will have a diplomatic passport to represent Moldovan culture.
