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rtists and cultural-development bodies should strengthen their overseas connections to promote their work and programs overseas, despite funding limitations.

Speaking during an open discussion at the recent Asia Cultural Cooperation Forum (ACCF), Carla van Zon, an official from Creative New Zealand, said with a limited budget from the government, her agency had to prioritize its overseas promotion programs.

"With limited budget and human resources, we currently only focus on promoting our art and culture to neighboring Australia and Asian countries," she said, adding that a bilateral or regional partnership, like the establishment of a joint festival, would be very helpful for partner countries to attract wider audiences.

Keum-jin Yoon, the director of the Korea Foundation Cultural Center, shared Carla's views.

However, learning from her experiences working with overseas partners, Yoon strongly urged artists and cultural agencies in the region to establish more intensive communication with each other to prevent any unexpected problems.

"In South Korea, for example, we have to book a performing arts venue at least a year before the D-day. But, it is still common for us to find foreign performing art groups calling us one or two months before their performance date," she said.

With many governments tending to regard arts and culture as not a basic need, artists and cultural agencies have faced a lack of funding - one of the major problems to promoting art and culture.

Meanwhile, it is also hard to rely on private sponsorships since companies and industry will only support popular performing arts or major cultural events that will be attended by a large number of guests.