Strengthening the Creative Industries in Zambia - Unctad

More documents

Recommendations

Info

30 PART 3. CREATIVE INDUSTRIES POLICY REVIEW involved in the process and defend the interests of its artists and creators in the context of the proposals and deliberations being negotiated under the WIPO Development Agenda. Zambia has a rich variety of traditional cultural expressions and indigenous knowledge, such as traditional dance and music, indigenous design and performances, which embody cultural identity and heritage. This traditional knowledge should be protected and promoted. Action: The Government could request the assistance of WIPO’s Creative Heritage Project to provide information technology (IT) support on the recording, digitalization and dissemination of cultural materials by indigenous communities. Attention should also be paid to the linkages between copyrights and new technologies and internet use for selling digitalized creative content, including issues related to collective management. The current IPR legislation has great lacunae and should be revisited, taking into account the specific needs of developing countries – in particular the LDCs – with a view to ensuring that actions are consistent with national objectives and development goals. The priorities identified by the stakeholders in the area of intellectual property were: (a) funding; (b) awareness and understanding of the regulations; (c) the necessity of going into the field to do training on a broad scale; and (d) technical and legal advice for artists to protect their rights. At a regional scale, although there have not been many regional policies dealing with IP, Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) came up with a regional policy which has a bearing on intellectual property vis-à-vis traditional knowledge. Currently, there is a policy formulated by COMESA which deals with IP and Trade. This policy has also encompassed the protection of traditional knowledge and IP. The recent development in biotechnological sciences and rise in patents in the field of biotechnology have put tremendous pressure on the Traditional Knowledge located in developing countries including for COMESA member states. The policy recognizes that a lot of money is raised from genetic resources; however, there is rampant bio-piracy in the region and this has raised a lot of concern. In conclusion, protection of Traditional Knowledge, Genetic Resources and Folklore has not been given prominent attention in much legislation available. This has resulted in very limited protection for these very important resources. Many countries in the region either do not have policies on IP or are just beginning to prepare them. Furthermore, IP laws are outdated and have no provision for the protection of TK, FR and Folklore. It is only recently that organizations like COMESA and ARIPO have taken initiatives to include the protection of TK, GR and Folklore in their policies and protocols. This is a step in the right direction. 63 3.4 FISCAL POLICY The Income Tax Act, the Customs and Excise Act and the Value Added Tax Act are the basic laws that cover Zambia’s tax system. The general corporate tax rate is 35 per cent. However, there have been a number of preferential rates and generous allowances for sectors that the Government has wished to promote. Value added tax of 17.5 per cent was introduced in 1995. 64 At present, there are no specific fiscal incentives in place to benefit and encourage the creative industries in Zambia. On the contrary, as in most developing countries, creative products such as music, films and audiovisuals are classified as “luxury items”, and tariff structures are usually unfavorable to domestic creators; in the case of imports of musical instruments and audiovisual and new media equipment, for instance, Zambia has very high import duties. 63 Conclusion of the document submitted by the Government of Zambia to the Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore of the World Intellectual Property Organization at its Sixteenth Session , Geneva, May 2010. 64 UNCTAD’s Investment Policy Review of Zambia.
PART 3. CREATIVE INDUSTRIES POLICY REVIEW 31 Action: The Government is encouraged to provide tax exemptions and reductions in duties and levies for the import of equipment used by creative enterprises to produce local creative content. In this regard, the involvement of the Ministry of Finance in the Creative Economy Inter-Ministerial Committee is crucial. The Government seems open to examining proposals for tax exemptions from the creative sector. 65 A special fiscal regime was granted to the tourism industry, in particular for hotel development, to promote Livingstone as a point of access for tourists visiting the Victoria Falls. Similar arrangements could be made for the construction of a large multi-purpose concert hall/theatre facility, which would provide the infrastructure to organize festivals and big performances, show movies etc. Incentives provided to foreign investors could also be extended to national investors, at least for the initial years. Action: The Government is encouraged to enact legislation to provide fiscal incentives to artists, cultural producers and the corporate sector to encourage the organization of big cultural performances for tourists and for the local population. Action: The Government could consider revising the tax breaks for the corporate sponsorship of the arts and culture, with a view to greater and sustainable benefit for the local creative sectors. Action: The Government is encouraged to establish a system of tax rebates for investment in the creative sectors. For example, in Germany, a 20 per cent tax rebate in the film sector is available; however the rebate depends on fulfillment of specific conditions. For example, a German cinema distribution deal must be confirmed with a minimum number of copies for release, a certain amount of the overall spending must be in the country, etc. By linking the rebate to specific conditions, is the only way to ensure that the local sectors can benefit. 3.5 INVESTMENT Investments in Zambia – foreign or domestic – are required to make an application under the Zambia Development Agency (ZDA) Act 2006. The company undergoes a screening process in order to get approval to invest. Some guarantees for foreigners are contained in the bilateral investment treaties. A scheme to promote investment in the high-growth and more value-added sectors of the creative economy could greatly contribute to supporting the Government’s goal of accelerating the National Economic Diversification Programme, and be a way to enhance creative supply capacities in the country. For instance, Zambia has an abundance of precious and semi-precious gemstones. These include emeralds, tourmalines, aquamarine and amethyst (Africa’s largest deposit). Why not target the creative jewellery sector and attract investors and jewellery creators to the production of high-quality jewellery in Zambia, instead of exporting all the gemstones as a raw commodity? Provisions to encourage private sector investment in this area could be explored. The same applies to textiles, as Zambia has a comparative advantage of availability of cotton and polycotton yarn, which could be used for the textile industry to produce distinctive ethnic designs and branded garments with high quality standards. Zambia has unlimited duty-free and quota-free access to the large United States market, under the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). In this regard, UNCTAD proposes the “creative nexus” model as a way to stimulate private investment, attracting new technologies, promoting entrepreneurship and setting the basis for an export-led strategy for the creative industries. In this scheme, effective public policies would bring about a virtuous circle, as shown in figure 8. 65 At the UNCTAD High-Level Policy Dialogue on Creative Industries, held in Lusaka on 2 July 2009, a high official from the Ministry of Finance invited the artists to submit proposals for tax exemptions up to 17 July 2009. Proposals can be submitted every year.
Page 1 and 2: U N I T E D N A T I O N S C O N F E
Page 3 and 4: ii STRENGTHENING THE CREATIVE INDUS
Page 5 and 6: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS T
Page 7 and 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS vii TABLE OF CONT
Page 9 and 10: LIST OF FIGURES, CHARTS AND TABLES
Page 11 and 12: LIST OF ABREVIATIONS xi LIST OF ABR
Page 13 and 14: EXECUTIVE SUMMARY xv EXECUTIVE SUMM
Page 15 and 16: PART 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 1 PART
Page 17 and 18: PART 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 3 mine
Page 19 and 20: PART 1. GENERAL INTRODUCTION 5 Zamb
Page 21 and 22: 8 PART 2. PROJECT CONTEXT growth an
Page 23 and 24: 10 PART 2. PROJECT CONTEXT major so
Page 25 and 26: PART 3. CREATIVE INDUSTRIES POLICY
Page 41: PART 3. CREATIVE INDUSTRIES POLICY
Page 61 and 62: PART 4. SECTOR SPECIFIC-OVERVIEW 49
Page 73 and 74: 62 PART 5. CONCLUSIONS types of nat
Page 75 and 76: 64 PART 5. CONCLUSIONS Moreover, th
Page 77 and 78: 66 PART 6. PLAN OF ACTION and valid
Page 79 and 80: 68 PART 6. PLAN OF ACTION Output 2.
Page 81 and 82: 70 PART 6. PLAN OF ACTION Output 5:
Page 83 and 84: 72 PART 6. PLAN OF ACTION producing
Page 85 and 86: 74 LIST OF CONTACTS Mumba, Norah. W
Page 87 and 88: 76 REFERENCES International Labour
Page 89 and 90: 78 REFERENCES UNCTAD (2008). Region
Page 91 and 92: 80 COUNTRY PROFILE AND STATISTICS P
Page 93 and 94:
82 COUNTRY PROFILE AND STATISTICS 7
Page 95 and 96:
84 COUNTRY PROFILE AND STATISTICS P
Page 97 and 98:
Page 99 and 100:
88 COUNTRY PROFILE AND STATISTICS E
Page 101 and 102:
Page 103 and 104:
Page 105 and 106:
94 COUNTRY PROFILE AND STATISTICS I
Page 107 and 108:
Page 109 and 110:
Page 111 and 112:
100 COUNTRY PROFILE AND STATISTICS
Page 113 and 114:
Page 115 and 116:
show all

Strengthening the Creative Industries in Zambia - Unctad

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?