The Forum on Culture and Development 2012 was inagurated on 19 August with the participation of Salvadoran artists.

The Secretary of Culture, Ana Magdalena Granadino and the National Folklore Ballet participated in the opening session at Teatro Presidente. 

The event was organized by the Sectetariat of Culture of the Presidency, Secultura, and was addressed for artists to make their proposals on the National Culture Act.

Many speakers and national and international institutions did make presentations during the conference.

The most applauded was the presentation of María Eugenia Paniagua, Secretary General of CECC-SICA, the Central American Institute of Education and Culture. She said that "the people of the cultural sector should and deserve to live well." The speech generated public sympathy and some of the participants even began to murmur during Ms Paniagua's lecture entitled "Presentation of the Central American Integration Policy of Culture".

Then it was the turn of Diana Hasbun, Director of the Intellectual Property Registry of the National Registry Center, and Giovanni Berti, executive director of the Agency for the Promotion of Exports and Investments Proesa. Berti focused his speech on the contribution of culture on economic wealth, identity and generation of employment that a Law on Culture will give to the country, upon which, Granada said the best bet would be to offer health insurance and a pension to national artists. He also said that the realization of this forum is not a result of the demands by the Movement of Independent Artists that had claimed that the forum was the result of their petitions to the government through a website. Nevertheless, he said that the forum has been on the agenda of Secultura since 2011.

http://elmundo.com.sv/artistas-reunidos-en-foro-cultural-2012