SA MINISTER’S NEW DEAL AT MIDEM

Programme of Cultural Cooperation for 2010 to 2012 signed between France and SA.

Bilateral discussions were held between the South African Minister of Arts and Culture and her French counterpart at MIDEM.on January 24, 2010, in Cannes, France. The two Ministers reviewed the current state of bilateral cultural cooperation, the rich, shared cultural history between the two countries, and identified several new areas of cooperation and agreed to sign a Programme of Cultural Cooperation for 2010 to 2012 as well as a new film co-production agreement.

The 3 year Programme of Cooperation will focus on joint projects in the fields of music, protection of heritage, design, publishing, digitization of culture, and the translation of books and texts to make them more accessible. The emphasis will be on sharing ideas, information and experiences, skills and technology transfer, capacity building and creating sustainable institution to institution links.

The French Minister and French public were invited to visit South Africa during the coming 2010 Fifa World Cup, especially when South Africa and France play against each other.

In a separate ceremony, the French Minister bestowed special recognition and French national arts and culture honours on prominent South African artists, Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu, for their excellent and long-standing contribution to the global music industry.