Ministry seeks to pay debt to agencies

Prensa Libre,
19 August 2012, Guatemala

The Minister of Culture and Sports, Carlos Batzin, said that as part of the Cultural Policy of Central American Integration in effect since last November, the ministry is seeking mechanisms to raise resources for the payment to various international organizations of which Guatemala is a member.

Batzin noted that Guatemala has signed agreements with entities such as the Latin American Association of Books and Reading, Iber-escenas and Iber-libraries but the statues require annuals fee that reach 75,000$ a year.

The official said that Guatemala is at the moment suspended from these international bodies due to the debt accumulated in the past 10 years around 8 to 10 million quetzals. If the country paid the debt it could benefit from culture cooperation programs of these agencies.

The search for these mechanisms of financial support is part of the Cultural Policy of Central American Integration announced officially on 21 August but that is already in place since last November.

One of the objectives of the policy is that by 2020 all countries designate at least three percent of gross domestic product to culture.

 

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