Cultural industry: A look at reality in Ninh Binh

In the strong development of Vietnam's cultural industry, Ninh Binh is emerging as a typical example of the harmonious combination of heritage preservation, promotion of local cultural values ​​and sustainable tourism development. Ninh Binh is focusing on solutions to gradually become a specialized center of cultural industry in the country and promote international integration.

The pearl of Vietnam tourism

It is no coincidence that Ninh Binh is known as the "pearl of Vietnamese tourism". Located at the gateway to the North, about 90km from Hanoi , Ninh Binh possesses a strategic geographical position, easily connecting with major tourist centers such as Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, and Hanoi. With its geographical advantage, Ninh Binh possesses a treasure trove of precious cultural and natural heritages. Currently, Ninh Binh owns 1,821 relics of many types, along with 430 intangible cultural heritages that are vividly present in community life.

Notable are the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex - World Cultural and Natural Heritage - the only dual heritage in Vietnam and Southeast Asia recognized by UNESCO as a typical model of economic development associated with heritage conservation; Cuc Phuong National Park; Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve... Based on these advantages, for many years, Ninh Binh has been considered a leading attractive destination in the world. The number of tourists to Ninh Binh has increased steadily over the years. In 2024, the province welcomed 8.7 million visitors (including 1.5 million international visitors), with revenue of more than 9,100 billion VND, the highest level ever. In just the first 4 months of 2025, Ninh Binh's tourism industry earned more than 6,000 billion VND.

Hoa Lu Festival is held in the third lunar month every year. Photo: TRUONG HUY

However, Ninh Binh province also frankly admitted that cultural tourism is slow to transform into industrial production methods, lacking innovative products that bring high added value; commercial cultural products are not clearly distinguished from public cultural services; cultural policies are still limited to the field of spiritual life, unclear orientation for the development of heritage economy, sports economy, media economy, museum economy; still confused when handling the relationship between meeting entertainment needs and ideological, artistic, ethical, and aesthetic education; lacking mechanisms and investment resources to transform cultural resources into cultural products; not attracting strategic investors, lacking "playgrounds" for famous cultural and entertainment workers who are regularly present in Ninh Binh; there are still many shortcomings, limitations, and obstacles in investment in the form of public-private partnerships (PPP) in the fields of culture, arts, and sports...

To continue promoting the outstanding advantages of tourism as well as overcoming these limitations, Ninh Binh has determined to develop cultural industry together with tourism to become the province's key economic cluster, meeting the requirements of rapid and sustainable development in the new era of national development.

Cultural industry - the inevitable direction

Developing the cultural industry is developing an economic sector based on heritage resources, cultural resources, creative motivation, entertainment, commerce and industrial production methods. The cultural industry plays an important role in promoting economic restructuring, renewing the growth model, solving employment, increasing income, meeting consumer demand, improving people's cultural and spiritual life, promoting soft power, and enhancing the value of local brands. Cultural industry products have outstanding characteristics such as entertainment, creativity, commodity and industrial production methods...

On February 28, 2025, the Ninh Binh Provincial Party Committee issued Resolution No. 22-NQ/TU on the development of cultural industries in the province for the period of 2025-2035, with a vision to 2050, focusing on a number of key areas such as traditional arts, cinema, and traditional crafts. One of the highly appreciated steps is to promote preferential mechanisms and policies on taxes and land, allowing the liberation of all creative capacities, the opening of all resources, and the rapid commercialization of innovative ideas, scientific and technological achievements; creating open policies for the production, distribution, export, import, and consumption of cultural and entertainment products; proposing to relax licensing conditions for emerging entertainment industries, perfecting the sports betting market; building a public-private partnership mechanism... These are important tools to unblock the flow of social capital into the cultural sector, a long-standing bottleneck.

According to Vice Chairman of Ninh Binh Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Cao Son: Resolution No. 22-NQ/TU of the Provincial Party Committee on developing cultural industry associated with tourism is a strategic step. Ninh Binh is considered by many experts to be one of the first provinces to pay attention to appropriate investment in cultural industry in general as well as information and communication in an effort to promote green growth and sustainable development.

Sharing about the potential and vision for developing Ninh Binh's cultural industry, Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Phan Tam said: "The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism has submitted to the Government a draft Strategy for Cultural Industry Development to 2030, with a vision to 2045, clearly identifying priority areas and many groups of industries with development potential, in which cultural tourism is considered the field with the greatest potential for integration and diffusion. Ninh Binh has all the conditions to become a bright spot to implement this model. For cultural industry to become a lever for tourism to "take off", Ninh Binh needs to create favorable policies to attract the private economy, focusing on digital transformation, digitizing heritage, and virtual museums. Digital transformation in culture is inevitable, so that the value of heritage goes beyond the local scope. Ninh Binh's tourism industry does not only focus on measuring the number of visitors and revenue, but also needs to build a set of metrics for cultural tourism development index, visitor experience, and resource exploitation efficiency".

With the right strategy, breakthrough policies and synchronous participation from the state-enterprise-creative community, Ninh Binh is gradually developing the cultural industry to not only create material wealth but also contribute to affirming local identity on the international map of cultural creativity.

According to People's Army

Source: https://baoangiang.com.vn/cong-nghiep-van-hoa-nhin-tu-thuc-te-o-ninh-binh-a421598.html