Priceless art and culture

The government will encourage the nation's public cultural facilities to let in visitors free, in an experiment intended to make high culture available to a wider public.

The Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Finance announced that all the public galleries at the national and provincial levels will introduce free admission at the end of this year. No admission fees for the rest of the countries galleries will be introduced at the end of the 2012. By which time all the nation's public cultural facilities, such as museums and libraries, will be free.

Funds to keep the public cultural facilities running will come from State coffers, but the issue is sensitive because of concerns about future funding for the public cultural facilities. Free admission can be made possible only through extra funding.