The Prime Minister said today that one of the biggest investments ever in the rehabilitation, requalification and enhancement of cultural heritage is underway, highlighting the project to equip 155 movie theaters with projection equipment digital.
António Costa was speaking at the National Archive of Moving Images (ANIM) of the Cinemateca Portuguesa, in Bucelas, in Loures, at a visit that was also attended by the Minister of Culture, Pedro Adão e Silva.
An investment project of more than eight million euros is reportedly included in the Recovery and Resilience Plan (PRR) specifically for culture and which, in total, has a value of 243 million euros.
“With PRR funds, we are going to intervene in a total of 46 buildings, including museums, palaces or national monuments, in order to ensure their requalification, rehabilitation and enhancement. In national theaters, there will be one of the biggest investments ever in the requalification and maintenance of our cultural heritage”, he claimed.
According to the Prime Minister, these investments will include energy efficiency and digitization measures, namely “to provide 155 cinemas in the country with equipment for digital projection”.
“A project that goes hand in hand with the current one concerning the digitalization of Portuguese cinema. This investment allows digital projection, but also the streaming of shows that are being performed live in the performing arts, such as ballet, music or theatre. We hope it will be a dissemination platform to reinforce the public's accessibility to concert halls”, stressed António Costa.
In a brief review of the “PRR em Movimento” program, an initiative that has already been running for two weeks, the executive leader said that he began by carrying out visits to health centres, student residences, nursing homes for the elderly, followed by projects being developed by companies, from textiles to pharmaceuticals.
“This week I will pay particular attention to projects that are being developed by the public administration. At the time the PRR was drawn up, there were criticisms for allocating funds to public administration, based on the mistake that they were to pay salaries or its current operation”, he said.
Giving as an example the funds allocated to the National Cinematheque, the prime minister countered that this component aims at “a very ambitious project to digitize about a thousand films”.
“It means that all Portuguese feature films, since forever, will be digitalized and, therefore, will not only be preserved, but also accessible to the public”, he said.
António Costa later recalled that the specific cultural component of the PRR was not foreseen in the initial PRR plan, having been included after the public debate and with the aim of strengthening the sector's budgetary capacity.
“That's how this component, with a total of 243 million euros, was introduced in the final version of the PRR. A large part of this investment of 243 million euros is aimed precisely at investing in the requalification and enhancement of our cultural heritage”, he added.
Source Lusa
