The performance theatre of the Koforidua Cenre for National Culture (CNC) complex, which was started in 1964 had been completed and inaugurated.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the Deputy Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ziblim Iddi said, the completion of the theatre was to fulfill the manifesto promise of the New Patriotic Party(NPP) to complete the various regional cultural centres, which were at various stages of construction to help provide decent halls for the creative and the performing arts in the country.
He explained that, the lack of infrastructure had led to the virtual collapse of the culture and creative arts industry in the country.
Dr Iddi said, performers have no decent halls to rehearse or put up drama or musical concerts, while fine artists of all categories lack studios and craft shops to create their works or distribution outlets and exhibition halls to market their works.
He said the completion of the performance theatre would help revive all sectors of the arts and its attendant benefits and opportunities to the practitioners and professionals in the region and the country at large.
Dr Iddi said, culture and creative arts now play a major role in the economic development of countries and in job creation in the world, hence economic planners and policy makers were now giving it the much needed attention in economic planning.
The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Eric Kwakye Darfour said the completion of the theatre would help create employment for the youth in the region and beyond and appealed to the public to use the facility for their conferences and workshops in addition to the promotion of the arts and culture of the region.
He appealed to the management of the theatre to come up with a comprehensive plan for the maintenance of the facility to ensure that it did not deteriorate.
The Eastern Regional Director of CNC, Mr Stephen Sedefo, thanked the Eastern Regional Minister and the various personality who played various roles to see to the completion of the theatre. Nana Nyantekyie Tutu-Boateng, Krontihene of the New Juaben Traditional Area who chaired the function called for efforts to reclaim the lands for the centre which had been encroached upon by some private developers. He explained that if the lands for the cenre are not taken back, the centre would not have any space for future expansion.
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