Minister sees Olympics as chance to promote Brazilian culture

Minister of Culture Juca Ferreira said Thursday (Mar 5) that the Olympic games represent a unique opportunity to make Brazil better known among the thousands of tourists visiting Rio to watch the games. During a meeting at the Permanent Culture Forum of Rio de Janeiro, he urged culture agents throughout the country to avail themselves of all their creativity for this purpose.

“The Olympic games are a huge event—even greater than the World Cup. No wonder competitive levels are so high. Cities apply as candidates and place stakes as high as they can, along with their personalities and cultural assets, in order to host the Olympics,” Juca said. He encouraged those present at the meeting to see the international event as an opportunity to develop the city's economy.

“We still haven't learned how to turn these major events into a process of local economic development. We tend to think more about the costs than the profits, when it's actually a huge opportunity. The Olympic games focus on a  single city and attract a lot more people than the World Cup. It's a golden opportunity,” he noted.

The Permanent Culture Forum of Rio de Janeiro was created after the minister made a suggestion during a meeting with cultural agents in Rio. The first meeting was held on February 2, and welcomed 400 artists, producers and cultural promoters from the city, when the discussions on projects and cultural actions for the 2016 Olympic Games were beginning to take shape.

Translated by Fabrício Ferreira

Relacionadas

Brazil to handle all 2016 Olympics security publicly

Govt looks for ways to facilitate entry of tourists for Olympics