Statistics on Cultural Industries - International Trade Centre

1. Why Cultural Industries: Development ContextCultural industries are, together with information and communication technologies (ICT) andbiotechnology, part of the new knowledge economies.The focus on cultural industries is linked to a newly-emerging global paradigm for development.Cultural industries have particular potential for participatory and community-based developmentand change.The strengthening of cultural industries requires integrated policy support and development(inclusion in overall national development goals and cohesive policy intervention that benefit allof the various cultural industries).To bridge the gap between industrialized and developing countries and regions, and to ensuremore equal participation in knowledge societies, creativity and creative/cultural industries needto be developed everywhere.Governments in the fastest-growing economies purposefully invest in mapping-studies andpromote policy measures that support and facilitate the development of cultural and creativeindustries. In many developing countries, however, the creative or cultural industries are lessincorporated into national planning frameworks and development strategies. Part of the reasonis that cultural industries to a great extent are part of the non-formal sector. Another reason is thegeneral absence of data information on the cultural industries and creative enterprise that couldindicate the scope and potential of these industries.Ranging from crafts and performing arts to the flourishing multimedia industry, the creative orcultural industries have become one of the fastest growing sectors in post-industrialized economies.The same developments have not occurred in many less developed economies in spite of the factthat traditional cultural industries are recognized as a potentially important economic activity inall countries.The recent international attention given to cultural industries is part of a wider emerging globalstrategy for sustainable development. This has been expressed in international agendas such as therecommendations of the Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural and Media Policies for Development(Stockholm, 1998), the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (2000), and the WorldSummit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002). The growing importance of culturalindustries is therefore closely related to profound transformations in economies and societies, andto a changed perception of culture and its role in these processes. The mobilization of the creativepotential and the distinctive organization of cultural industries are two factors that lend theseindustries particular potential for participatory and community-based development and change.The strengthening of these industries may well hold a key to more sustainable development bycreating a vector to extend development to the most traditional parts of society where povertyhas sometimes seemed to be deeply entrenched. In recent years, there has therefore been a newfocus on the potential of mainstreaming culture into national development plans as a means ofachieving more sustainable development. The cultural industries are key in realizing this strategy.