The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts is to train 3,000 people for the creative arts industry with funding from the Japanese government.

Tools and raw materials are being procured to ensure an effective training programme to produce professionals who could transform the industry.

The Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Arts, Mrs. Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, said this at the Eastern Regional Festival of Arts and Culture at Koforidua.

She said the creative arts industry had ceased to be a field and shouldn’t be for dropouts because it requires a high sense of intelligence and combination of skills.

“There is evidence that it holds the key for transforming the fortunes of emerging economies,” she said.

Mrs. Ofosu-Agyare called for collective efforts to design programmes that could instill into the youth strong moral, spiritual and creative armour that would enable them to resist the influence of bad foreign cultural practices.

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr. Antwi-Boasiako Sekyere, appealed to the Ministry to help complete the regional theater complex which was started in 1964.

He called on the regional directorate of education to organize excursions for the schools to enable school children to know more about the region.

The chairman of the function, Osahene Offei Kwasi Agyeman IV, Akuapem Krontihene, appealed to traditional authorities, religious organizations, educationists and civil society organizations to help find solutions to the negative foreign influence on the youth.

He expressed regret that as a result of the negative influence of foreign cultures, many young people in the country had taken to illegal drugs and other anti-social activities.

He appealed to parents to assume their rightful places in the upbringing of their children.