Implementation of Cultural Donation Matching Fund

Ms Janice Koh asked the Acting Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) if he will provide an update on the implementation of the Cultural Donation Matching Fund; (b) what can be done to ensure that the Fund attracts new cash sponsorships rather than replacing existing sponsorships; (c) whether the matching funds will be subject to the same funding guidelines as those of the National Arts Council for arts groups and, if so, why; and (d) whether the Fund will recognise donations made from 1 April 2013 onwards.

MCCY has been actively consulting our stakeholders on the design of the Cultural Donation Matching Fund. We have met many arts groups and donors in the last few months. We also launched an online public consultation exercise in April, and have just posted a summary of the responses on the MCCY website.

The Matching Fund is a strong signal of the shared responsibility between the Government, private and people sectors in driving Singapore's cultural development. This signalling effect can and should encourage more new donations. Indeed, many people we engaged, including potential donors, were optimistic about the positive impact that the Matching Fund will have on new donations to the arts and culture. Arts groups have also told us that the Matching Fund will create opportunities for them tap new sources of giving. In fact, they see it as their responsibility to make this happen.

The Matching Fund will have its own funding guidelines to ensure proper governance and accountability in the use of public monies. In working out these

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guidelines, we will take reference from existing funding guidelines that are already in place today, including those of the National Arts Council.

When we announced the Matching Fund in the Budget this year, we made clear that we would engage in a process of consultation to work out the details of the scheme over the subsequent months. So far, we have kept to this timeline and we are on track. In our consultations, the vast majority were also comfortable with this timeline. So, we aim to finalise the scheme within the coming months and there should not be a need to backdate it to 1 April 2013.