"We shall not make laws, we shall not work out a state policy. We are not a political body of the government. We are most likely a state player on the market of culture," he told reporters.
According to Shvydkoy, the activity of the Agency he heads amounts to some 65-70 percent of the work of the Former Ministry of Culture which was abolished during the reorganisation of the government.
"In some aspects, like relations with property, it is supposed that the Agency will have more rights than the former ministries," Shvydkoy believes.
As to the newly instituted Ministry of Culture and Mass Communications, Shvydkoy continued, it will do juridical and political work: it will form a legislative basis, draft normative documents, work out a long-term strategy and policy in the sphere of culture and mass communications.
"This is not simply a Ministry of Culture, it is an absolutely different ministry with absolutely different functions. In this sense, for the people who will work in this ministry, it will be psychologically a very difficult work: everything that concerns producing work will be done now by the Agency, and this work is most understandable; but everything which has to do with politics and the formation of strategy will be in the competence of the ministry, and this is a very difficult thing," Shvydkoy said.
