Kathmandu, March 16 The government must make it mandatory for building owners to invest certain portion of the building cost in arts and craft to promote the country’s creative and cultural industry, Rajeev Sethi, a leading designer of South Asia, said today. “Even in India, which is backwards in terms of promoting creative and cultural industry, property owners must spend at least two per cent of the building cost on development of crafts in buildings that they are constructing ... This rate is 26 per cent in the Indonesian island of Bali and 45 per cent in Bhutan,” said the veteran Indian designer, who was chosen by Louis Vuitton to create special window installations across the globe as a part of a creative exchange. If Nepal could come up with legislation in this regard, Sethi added, the country’s creative and cultural industry would get a significant boost. “I’m saying this because architecture is a big market,” said the designer, who has worked with Pierre Cardin, and was mentored by designers like Ray and Charles Eames. “At present, whatever is happening in this sector — such as manufacturing of small handicraft products — is bric-a-brac and can only cater to few tourists coming into the country. They are not going to create lots of jobs.” To create jobs, a robust knowledge-based economy, backed by creative and cultural industry, has to be created, Sethi added. “In a knowledge-based economy, content is everything. And such content should be unique, for which creativity and artisan skills are necessary,” Sethi said. Although Nepal is rich in arts and crafts, the sector has not been able to grow in a desired manner because of lack of attention from government authorities and others. So, many families, who were dependent on this sector for livelihood for ages, have started adopting other professions that appear more lucrative to them. This, on the one hand, has reduced the number of artists in the country, and, on the other, led the sector to move ahead in an ad-hoc manner. “The problem here is lack of organised intervention,” said Sethi. “This not only includes introduction of a number of legislations, but development of institutions that promote learning on arts and craft. These institutions will not only hone skills of artists but teach them ways to position their creation so that they can get maximum yields and harness opportunities provided by the industry.” These initiatives, according to Sethi, would give a boost to the creative and cultural industry, which is a growth sector and has the ability to generate jobs for the mass. “These efforts, in turn, would provide a unique cultural identity to the country and help Nepal eradicate poverty as well,” said Sethi, who came to Nepal on the invitation of the Poverty Alleviation Fund (PAF). The PAF has hired Sethi’s Asian Heritage Foundation to help it implement a programme aimed at raising the share of rural artisans — especially poor, internally displaced, landless and the vulnerable — in arts and craft market. The programme launched in February 2012 has been rolled out in Terhathum, Dhanusha, Lalitpur, Gorkha, Myagdi, Rupandehi, Kapilbastu, Dailekh and Dang districts. Under the programme, rural artisans are extended training and credit; and taught ways to design, brand and market products in a manner that gives them an edge. The programme will continue till July 15, 2017.