The Spanish Minister for Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, has just presented the work programme that will be tackled at the next European Forum for Cultural Industries, to be held on 29 and 30 March in Barcelona.

The Spanish Minister for Culture, Ángeles González-Sinde, has just presented the work programme that will be tackled at the next European Forum for Cultural Industries, to be held on 29 and 30 March in Barcelona. Organised by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the Official Chamber of Commerce, Industry and International Trade of Barcelona, the forum will be the ideal prologue to the Informal Meeting of Ministers for Culture of the European Union that will also be held in the Catalan capital on 31 March.

The Minister said that the European Commission's Green Paper on Cultural and Creative Industries, written by different experts and technicians from each of the economic-cultural areas in the sector will be presented at the congress.

After the opening conference, the meetings will be organised around four plenary sessions and two parallel sessions, to deal with the following subjects:

- Cultural industry financing (financial intervention mechanisms, SME sustainability...)
- Professionals in the cultural industries (new competencies derived from digital mutation, the mobility of talent...)
- Internationalisation of cultural products (local production in global markets, internationalisation and cooperation strategies...)
- Intellectual property and rights management
- And territorial development (culture and territorial development, European local and regional development programmes).

The forum will be attended by institutional representatives from the EU and the different Member States; senior experts from each area; technicians from the European Commission's working groups; and representatives from the cultural industry, economic and education sectors... In total, 500 professionals and seventy speakers are expected to attend the meeting.

Ángeles González-Sinde said that Barcelona will be the venue for discussions that will examine the possibility of culture becoming “the driving force of the economy and a new way of understanding the economy”.

The coordinator of the forum, Lluís Bonet, stated that the meeting will attempt to “provide continuity” to the International Congress on Economy and Culture opened by His Majesty Juan Carlos in the Catalan capital in May 2009.