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<html> <head> <meta name="Generator" content="Corel WordPerfect 8"> <title>MR. AXWORTHY - ADDRESS AT A LUNCHEON ON THE OCCASION OF A ROUNDTABLE ON INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION IN CULTURAL POLICY - OTTAWA, ONTARIO</title> </head> <body text="#000000" link="#0000ff" vlink="#551a8b" alink="#ff0000" bgcolor="#c0c0c0"> 98/48 CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY NOTES FOR AN ADDRESS BY THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS THE HONOURABLE LLOYD AXWORTHY AT A LUNCHEON ON THE OCCASION OF A ROUNDTABLE ON INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION IN CULTURAL POLICY OTTAWA, Ontario June 30, 1998 This document is also available on the Department's Internet site: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Ottawa! I hope that you have had productive discussions so far. I can tell you that the session I chaired this morning was very lively and very interesting. At this morning's session, I said a few words about why I believe that culture is an increasingly important element in the conduct of foreign policy. I spoke of the changing times in which we live. Of how the pressures of globalization, the spread of democracy, and the information revolution are reshaping international relations. Of how, in this new situation, a country's intangible assets -- its global image, its culture, its ability to rally others to its cause -- are increasingly important levers. I also spoke of the need to respond to the opportunities and challenges that this new situation presents: everything from the opportunities to reach foreign publics directly, to the challenges to national identity presented by an onslaught of external information and cultural products. Now, if you will permit me, I would like to outline a few of the ways in which Canada is responding. I hope that these will be a basis for further discussion and exchange on our various approaches to international cultural issues. The foundation of the Canadian response is an integrated approach -- integrated across institutions and across themes. The Canada Council, Téléfilm, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Heritage Canada, the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade [DFAIT] all deal in one way or another with international cultural issues. Our aim is to ensure that these issues are integrated across a wide range of activities. Cultural activities have immense value in and of themselves, but in the international arena they are also closely linked to other important themes: the promotion of core values; public diplomacy, communications and the effective influence they can provide; the strengthening of national identity; and, at the same time, the development of appreciation of and openness to other cultures. In other words, cultural relations are no longer simply the icing on the diplomatic cake -- they are an integral part of the foreign policy tool-kit. In Canada, we have made the integrated promotion of culture and values the third pillar of our foreign policy. We promote Canadian values and interests abroad by showcasing the richness and diversity of Canadian culture on the international stage. This contributes to the positive image that Canada enjoys around the world, helps to build lasting and productive relations, and supports exports by Canadian cultural producers. Within the third pillar, we are pursuing vigorously traditional activities of promotion and exchange. Budgets for cultural and academic relations were the only ones untouched by the substantial cuts within DFAIT of recent years. At the same time, we are developing new approaches. Like the governments of many countries, Canada provides modest support for its artists to explore new ideas and new markets overseas. DFAIT supports 300 to 400 projects of this sort each year. In the performing arts alone last year, we supported 80 international tours, with almost 1100 performances in 42 countries, which in turn generated about $13 million of direct economic activity. We provide funding to ten Canadian performing arts and film festivals to bring in foreign buyers. On the visual arts side, we invite up to 10 foreign museum and gallery directors to visit Canadian museums and galleries each year. The recipients of this support come from all parts of Canada, and from a cross section of our population, including Aboriginal groups and youth. This support helps to expose our artists to new cultures and to share our best with the rest of the world. It also contributes to what has become a substantial sector of our economy. As part of our mandate for international trade, we also support the export efforts of our cultural industries. In 1997, exports of Canadian cultural commodities excluding film reached $1.5 billion, double what they were in 1990. Our missions have always played a key role in presenting Canadian culture abroad. Now we are renovating certain missions to serve even more effectively as high-tech, multifunctional platforms for the best of Canadian culture and information. We recently renovated and reopened Canada House in London as a high-profile, multipurpose facility to enhance awareness of Canada's cultural renaissance in the United Kingdom. The Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris went through a similar facelift and was reopened 18 months ago. Soon after the German government moves to Berlin, Canada will open its new mission in Berlin, with state-of-the-art cultural facilities. Information kiosks in the public areas of our Embassies abroad will allow people without an at-home Internet connection to learn about Canada and Canadian culture. We have also made enormous efforts to enhance Canada's presence on the Internet. The Department has several award-winning Internet sites, where information about our programs and policies are easily accessible to interested Canadians and foreign nationals, including sites for our Youth International Internship Program and for the anti-personnel mines ban. These are all important pieces of the cultural puzzle. But I have long felt the need for an overall strategy that would tie together our efforts in terms of information and culture in the international sphere. That is why I launched work to develop a Canadian International Information Strategy in December 1996. As Minister Copps told our National Press Club earlier this month, Canada is among the most open countries when it comes to exploration of other cultures. Well over half the television programs we watch, the music we listen to, and the books we read are produced somewhere else. But we are a modest people, and do not do as good a job as we might in returning the favour, in sharing our culture and values and points of view with the rest of the world. Polls indicate that people in Brazil, Japan and Kenya like us, but do not really know us. They think that Céline Dion, Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, Oscar Peterson and Jim Carey are Americans; that Canada's chief exports are wheat, fish and minerals. They are surprised to learn that we are the world's second- largest exporter of television programs. Or that we are a leader in telecommunications, software development and animation. Or that Canadian engineering schools are second to none. These are a few of the reasons I initiated the Canadian International Information Strategy. I asked the Department to explore how Canada could use modern communications technologies to share our stories and experiences more effectively with the rest of the world. What has emerged from our consultations with the private and the voluntary sectors, and with the provinces and other government departments, is the need for an international electronic presence for Canada. Don't worry, we don't plan to drown anyone else out! But we do want to be present in the thousand-channel universe. We want to continue reaching those who rely on radio for reliable information. And we want you to be able to reach us through the Internet. More specifically, we envision a strategic combination of radio, television and the Internet. As a first step, Minister Copps and I have ensured that Radio Canada International -- which has been Canada's voice abroad for more than 50 years -- has the resources it needs to prepare itself for the 21st century. My officials have met with the Department of Canadian Heritage, and with leaders of the Canadian broadcasting industry, to start thinking about how we can disseminate identifiably Canadian television programs more widely, including programs in languages other than French and English. On the Internet, we are planning to create an exciting and easily reached gateway to Canada, so that our friends in other countries can quickly and effortlessly connect to our artists, to our scientists, to our businesses, to our human rights activists, to our universities and colleges, to our Aboriginal communities. It will also be a space where your citizens and ours can interact on issues of shared concern: human rights, the eradication of landmines, the protection of the earth's environment, and nuclear testing. And we would also like to assist, if we can, NGOs [non-governmental organizations] and other civil society groups who would like to use new technologies to reach out beyond our borders, and share knowledge with like-minded groups in other countries. The benefits of an integrated international strategy of the sort I have described will be felt at home as well as abroad. The information revolution presents new opportunities to exert influence at the international level. But too rapid changes are also creating pressures on national cohesion. Supporting cultural expression abroad simultaneously strengthens the sense of national identity and pride in one's country. International successes in cultural endeavours play strongly at home. It feeds a renewed sense of self-confidence and pride and strengthens a healthy sense of national identity. For Canada, which has often seen itself as being in the shadow of its superpower neighbour, an international appreciation for Canadian culture and cultural products reinforces a sense of distinctiveness and worth. It helps to create a greater domestic space for our artists. Together, culture and communications have a powerful impact in this new era of global interaction. Modern communications technologies can overcome the constraints of distance and bring our citizens closer together. They also offer us new ways to celebrate our cultural and linguistic diversity. But it won't happen by accident. We cannot stop the march of technology. But we can -- and must -- work together to gain the most from it so as to launch positive dialogue. In the "global village," we must communicate with our neighbours to the greatest extent possible. Thank you. </body> </html>

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