Obuljen Koržinek presented a pair of prominent platforms promoting Croatian culture. The first is the Croatian Literature website, created to promote Croatian writers to foreign audiences. The second, Filming in Croatia, offers an incentive programme to promote our country as a venue for foreign movie and television location shooting.
Culture and media minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek took part in a Croatian diplomacy conference organised in Zagreb in late August by our foreign and European affairs ministry, gathering our ambassadors, general consuls, consuls and military attachés. She presented a pair of prominent platforms promoting Croatian culture on the Internet. The first is the Croatian Literature website (https://www.croatian-literature.hr/), created to promote Croatian writers to foreign audiences. The second, Filming in Croatia, offers an incentive programme to promote our country as a venue for foreign movie and television location shooting.
Our government declared 2021 a Year of Reading on the back of a national strategy adopted in 2017 to promote reading. The strategy aims to develop a culture of reading and literacy. Government also made this move in light of the current pandemic fears and the restricted opportunities to organize and participate in cultural events these pandemic fears have engendered.
In the context of the reduced scope of cultural diplomacy Ms Obuljen Koržinek showcased the Croatian Literature website as a critical platform encouraging foreign language translations of the works of Croatian authors and the publication and promotion of their work abroad. Besides showcasing various Croatian writers and prime examples of existing translations, and an overview of translations and interviews with these writers, including readings of their work with subtitles in English, this site also provides detailed information on grants provided through the culture and media ministry to publishers abroad printing translations of the works of our writers.
The site also presents an overview of literary residences in our country; visits by foreign writers to Croatia have a number of positive impacts.
Ms Obuljen Koržinek noted that speculation about the development of the pandemic fears in the coming season remains fraught with uncertainty, and that quandaries revolving around the epidemiological measures imposed in particular countries have hamstrung the planning of international cultural cooperation. She also pointed to the incentives programme offered through the Filming in Croatia (https://filmingincroatia.hr/hr/) website aimed at supporting film and television location shooting in Croatia. This programme saw some action last year, the minister noted, adding that interest was growing, with new shoots announced for late 2021, and estimates putting local expenditure by foreign production crews this year at over 330 million kuna (about 44 million euro).
Besides the significant direct financial injection, these productions provide employment to a broad range of Croatians in the film industry and provide inestimable media support to promoting Croatia as a destination and drawing more visitors, the minister concluded. (https://mvinfo.hr/)