EU4Culture: Lankaran's cultural development strategy on agenda

By Azernews

By Laman Ismayilova

Famous for its rich culture and history, Lankaran is on the agenda as the city that has won the EU's grand within the EU4Culture project, Azernews reports.

Launched in 2021, EU4Culture is a four-year EU-funded project to support the cultural and creative sector in the Eastern Partnership countries, with a special focus on non-capitals and regions.

Lankaran's cultural development strategy has been recently discussed at the meeting.

Chief of the Culture Ministry's Art and Digital Development Department Ramil Abbakirov addressed the event organized by the Lankaran Culture Department.

In his speech, Ramil Abbakirov stressed the importance of cooperation between Azerbaijan and the European Union in the field of culture and the implementation of joint projects.

He emphasized that the project is being implemented in five Eastern Partnership countries.

Azerbaijani cities won a grant (€30,000) for a cultural development strategy.

Shaki, Khirdalan, and Lankaran were among the winners of the competition held within the EU4Culture project

The project aims to contribute to the expansion of culture and social development in the region.

It is planned to write cultural strategies for cities at the expense of grants received under the project.

In total, 70 cities from five Eastern Partnership countries took part in the competition.

"Eight Azerbaijani cities applied for participation in the project. In the first stage, five cities competed for the right to receive grants. Shaki, Khirdalan, and Lankaran competed and reached the second stage. If the city wins, we will try to unleash its cultural potential through strategic development," said Ramil Abbakirov.

Ramil Abbakirov underlined that the project is envisaged for four years and requires active support from the community.

Deputy Mayor of Lankaran Mikayil Jafarzadeh said that strategic development will play a key role in promoting Azerbaijani culture.

Within the framework of the "State Program for the Socio-Economic Development of the Azerbaijani Regions for 2014-2018", a number of events were implemented in the city of Lankaran. Among them, one can cite as an example the work aimed at creating road infrastructure, building enterprises, and entrepreneurship development.

Firuza Bagir, the local coordinator of the EU4Culture EU project, briefed the participants on the project.

Next, the head of the Lankaran Regional Culture Department, Shahin Shahbazov, presented Lankaran`s culture strategy. He gave detailed information about the work done within the project.

Shahin Shahbazov noted that the main goal of the project is to apply European models in the activities of libraries, museums, galleries, and other cultural institutions as well as to work to increase the city's cultural potential.

After the reports, the participants in the event exchanged views on various topics.

At the end of the event, participants viewed an exhibition of handicrafts by local artists.