KUALA LUMPUR – The National Culture Policy 2021 (Daken 2021) launched today will be used as a guide and reference in planning the development of the country’s arts, culture and heritage sector, said Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
The prime minister said the initiative to enact Daken 2021 was also in line with efforts to make the sector a socio-economic catalyst for Keluarga Malaysia.
He said the policy outlined directions to be taken in becoming a “Developed Nation of Cultured People”, formulated based on the five principles of Keluarga Malaysia, namely inclusivity, togetherness, sense of pride, openness, and wholeness.
Ismail Sabri said this when launching Daken 2021 via video recording at Panggung Sari Kompleks Kraf here in Jalan Conlay. Also present was Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Nancy Shukri.
The prime minister said Daken has seven cores to it, namely a highly valued culture, community harmony, preservation and conservation of cultural heritage, cultural development and expansion, cultural empowerment, generation of cultural economy, and cultural excellence.
Ismail Sabri said there is consistent human capital development at each core, which includes formal arts, culture, and heritage education as well as the application of non-formal education in an effort to produce successors to existing arts, culture, and heritage activists.
He said Daken is to ensure that cultural sustainability continues to be guaranteed and is a continuation of the previous National Culture Policy in shaping national culture and achieving a united nation.
“The policy was used as a guide in shaping and maintaining the identity of Malaysia, which has a multi-racial society. As a result, over the past 50 years, various achievements in arts, culture, and heritage have been recorded,” he said.
He said the sector had great potential to generate an economy in the past, for example in 2019 when it recorded an income of RM585 million compared to RM542 million in 2017.
“The numbers already started showing a convincing recovery as soon as the country entered the Covid-19 endemic phase. As a result, the government has set a revenue target for this sector at RM1 billion by 2025,” he said.
The government through the Tourism, Arts, and Culture Ministry will also continue to diversify efforts to increase the competitiveness, visibility, and image of the country’s arts, culture, and heritage sector as a core towards balanced development, he said.
He also called on all Malaysians to work together to make the policy a success and restore the nation’s reputation of “Malaysia Truly Asia”. – Bernama, October 26, 2021
