Statistics on Cultural Industries - International Trade Centre

It is important to note that the shift to cultural industries is not only a matter of reorienting theproduction capacity from one product to another. It is also a shift in focus towards a globalknowledge economy in which production is predicated on the consumption, capacity for, andaccess to knowledge and information. It is therefore particularly important to also document thesocial impact of the cultural industries sector.Increasingly, there is international recognition that intellectual property rights regimes are not onlymeans of protecting the economic interests of individual creativity. By design, these instrumentsare also intended to be powerful tools for policy makers to ensure the extension of creativeenterprise to a broader segment of the population. Backed up by this understanding, culturalindustries become a viable strategy for poverty reduction programmes.<strong>Statistics</strong> on Cultural IndustriesFramework for the Elaboration of National Data Capacity Building ProjectsIf national policy makers are to make informed policy decisions that successfully integrate culturalindustries as an element of overall national development plans, some of the fundamental questionsthey need to answer include:•••••What is the socio-economic impact and potential of cultural industries in a given country/region?What are the drivers of cultural industries development?How can income-generation from cultural industries be optimized?What are the issues and potential in terms of the development of specific sub-sectorindustries and employment in each region and country for the development of the culturalindustries sector?What are the infrastructure needs that must be met to enable growth of the culturalindustries sector as a strategy for local economic development?• Which cultural industries should be targeted as a priority to achieve the MillenniumDevelopment Goals and other national development goals?• For the respective priority industries, what are their specific problems and needs?Although there has been much debate around such questions, the debate is rarely backed upwith the data or analysis required to answer them. Without such data and analytical capacity incountries, informed policy discourse and decision-making pertaining to the cultural industriessector is stymied, as it is simply not possible to intelligently and systematically assess the past,monitor the present, and plan the future.The need for a coherent and robust framework for analyzing cultural industries is underpinned byan understanding of the rapidly-expanding knowledge economy as the immediate context forthe development of these industries. As the knowledge economy encompasses the whole of thearts and sciences, the potential for cultural industries is in fact far greater than the conventionalnotion of their “limited” potential that still lingers in many planning schemes. Similarly, the need forcomparative tracking is becoming increasingly necessary as countries participate in regional andinternational economic partnerships.Unless conscious efforts are directed towards ensuring the national capacity needed to includethe cultural industries sector in national planning in developing countries, there is a dangerthat the creative economy may lead to even greater disparities between rich and poor. Tobridge the gap between industrialized and developing countries and regions, and ensure more