Statistics on Cultural Industries - International Trade Centre

holistic approach to development as echoed in the increasing support for concepts such as the“human development index”, “liveable societies”, or “gross national happiness”.The approach was further boosted with the adoption of the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity:“The reduction of cultural diversity, whether by accident or by cultural design, is a direct hazardto the building of the capacity to aspire, without which development projects can never succeed.This is the key argument for the indivisibility of culture and development, as interlinked projects forthe advancement of democracy and equity on a global basis. … Development processes whichare not founded upon local knowledge and ‘ways of being’ counteract sustainability by relying onexternal models and methods which may be inappropriate to the local cultural landscape”. The adoption of the Jodhpur Consensus emphasized, however, the Asia-Pacific region’s strategicrepositioning of cultural industries to become a fundamental driver for local socio-economic growthand a key to the installation of more sustainable models for social development in the region. Torealize this visionary strategy, UNESCO and its UN partner agencies are committed to assist thosecountries that would like to pilot activities under the framework of the Jodhpur Initiatives. Bhutanwas among the very first countries to indicate an interest in pursuing the strategy outlined in theJodhpur Initiatives, both at national level and as far as possible as part of sub-regional trade andeconomic co-operation.To support the realization of this vision, Bhutan hosted the BIMSTEC First Ministerial Meeting onCulture in Paro in May 2006. The meeting brought together the Ministers of Culture from sevencountries - Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Thailand – to discuss the kindof cultural programming that should be part of the technical co-operation and trade agreement.The Paro Initiative adopted by the meeting is a roadmap for socio-economic progress driven bycultural industries in the BIMSTEC region. The first modality of co-operation agreed upon in theParo Initiative is a commitment to co-ordinated national data collection for the establishment ofbaseline data related to the cultural industries sector in each country. The Paro Initiative also callsfor the establishment of a BIMSTEC Cultural Industries Observatory (CIO) to be located in Bhutan,and a BIMSTEC Cultural Industries Commission (CIC).Like most of the countries in Asia, Bhutan has yet to actively plan and invest for the opportunitiesposed by the wide-reaching structural changes to economy and trade, especially as it concernsthe consequences for local development. By co-operating to strengthen cultural diversity andartistic strength through trade and technical co-operation, for example in the context of BIMSTECas stipulated in the Paro Initiative, Bhutan has a great opportunity to pursue the application ofa more sustainable, holistic development model and to position itself in relation to the globalmarket for cultural goods and services.. “The Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity”, adopted by the United Nations, 2002.. See http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/cultural_industries.. Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multisectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation65