In his presentation before the Committee on Education, Culture and Communication at the House of Representatives, El Ferdaous said that the ministry has launched an exceptional program to support the publishing and book sector for the year 2020, by allocating a budget of 11 Mln MAD for the benefit of all cultural actors, in particular authors, editors and associative actors, in addition to the launch of calls for tenders to support artistic projects, for an amount of 39 Mln MAD.

With regard to support for books and publishing, El Ferdaous noted that the culture department has taken measures to settle the due payments, that is 13.5 Mln MAD for projects supported in the field of publishing and book, for previous years, namely 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

"The sector's support program concerns the acquisition of books from libraries and publishers for distribution in school and public libraries, the publication and publishing of cultural magazines, whether in paper or electronic version, as well as raising awareness about the importance of reading," he said.

Regarding support for artistic sectors, the minister said that his department had taken a number of measures concerning authors' rights, the situation of filmmakers, theater, music and plastic arts, in order to mitigate the harmful repercussions of the pandemic on this sector.

As for filmmakers, the Minister indicated that among the repercussions of the health crisis on the cinematographic sector are the cessation of cinematographic and audiovisual production activity for more than 50 private production companies, the closure of cinemas and the postponement of the release of films, as well as the unemployment of technicians in the film and audiovisual industry as well as artists.

To mitigate the negative repercussions of the pandemic, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center has taken numerous measures, notably the screening of 51 Moroccan films, one film every two days (March 30-July 10), and the maintenance of scheduled support under the year 2020 in favor of the film industry, as well as the acceleration of the payment of sums due to film production companies, that is 6.5 Mln MAD.

Concerning the theater, music and plastic arts sectors, El Ferdaous affirmed that the ministry, in coordination with the Ministry of  Economy, Finance and Administration Reform, took measures to settle cultural and artistic projects for the year 2019, knowing that more than 80% of the remaining support amounts (22 Mln MAD) have been paid, for the benefit of artists and groups supported by artistic projects for the past year and who have fulfilled their commitments.

In this context, the Minister stressed that an amount estimated at 20 Mln MAD was allocated to national theatrical tours, 12 Mln MAD to music, singing, performing arts and choreography and an envelope of 2 Mln MAD to plastic and visual art exhibitions.