The government is to set up a cultural policy advisory group to review the cultural sector, Parliamentary Secretary Jose Herrera said.

Speaking at the launch of this summer's Malta Arts Festival (see separate story on festival events) Dr Herrera said that he hoped that during his tenure at the Culture Ministry there will be no political divides.

This legislature, he said, would build on what "others have done so far". The present cultural policy would be embraced by the government, and married to Labour’s manifesto.

The cultural advisory group would look at the “bad and the good” in the current cultural scenario, review funding and a focus on enhancing the profile of local talent.

Steps would be taken to separate the organisational and regulatory roles of the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts. The council should focus on the cultural vision as a regulator, the parliamentary secretary said.

This would take place in the warm-up to Malta’s cultural capital title in 2018. Dr Herrera said he had just been informed that the cultural capital title did not encompass just Valletta, but other localities.