Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

Table 4.4 continuedCreative services as defined by UNCTADUNESCO Framework for Cultural Statistics 2009UNCTAD Creative Economy Report 20104Towards an evidence-based assessment of the creative economyBPM6EBOPSLabels11. Personal, cultural, and recreational services11.1 Audiovisual and related services11.2 Other personal, cultural, and recreational services11.1.1 Audio-visual services11.1.2 Artistic related services 411.2.3 Heritage and recreational services 52. Equipments and supporting materials8. 8.3 Licenses to reproduce and/ordistribute computer software9.2 9.2.1 Computer services9.2 9.2.2 Other computer services4.8.3 Lessons learned from thecomparison studyIn short, the result of this study as presented in table4.1 provides an evidence-based comparative analysis for creativeindustries trade statistics. This analysis will be helpfulfor experts and policymakers updating current classificationschemes or establishing new frameworks for trade statisticsfor creative goods and services. This exercise also shows thatthe classification of trade statistics for creative goods proposedby UNCTAD is aligned with other classificationsgathered from key international organizations or individualcountries. As a result of this work, UNCTAD refined itscurrent classification by revisiting and reconstructing its listof creative goods. This refinement starts by identifying theintersection of ‘core’ and ‘optional’ sets of creative goods inother classifications and maintains all of the codes that areuniversally recognized. It adds some codes that do not existin our list but have been included in other classifications.Lastly, it deletes some codes which lack specific descriptionand not been defined by other classifications.BPM5EBOPSLabels10. Personal, cultural, and recreational services10.1 Audiovisual and related services10.2 Other personal, cultural, and recreational services2. Related industry and services7. 7.1 Computer services(not included in CER08)Source: UNCTAD, UNESCO (2009:39)Notes:1. This category also includes other artistic and literary licenses, such as performing artists, authors, composers, sculptors, set designers, costume designers,lighting designers and others.2. News agency services include the provision of news, photographs and feature articles to the media.3. Includes library and archives services.4. Includes other cultural services.5. Recreational services are included in Code 11.2.3 (heritage and recreational services).6. This category should include all cultural expenses made abroad for any type of travel (study, business or health).7. This category was introduced in CER08 but did not aggregate in ‘All creative services’.Another finding from the comparison is that a migrationof trade statistics to the new classification is necessary.The reasons for migrating from the 1996 version of HS tothe 2002 version are twofold: First, the earlier version cannotreflect the recent development in creative industries, andthe newer version provides a better disaggregation of codes.However, the trade data for HS 2007 is only available afterthe year 2007, making it impossible to conduct a comparativeanalysis for the evolution of world trade in creativeindustries.The second reason for suggesting this migration concernsdata. UNCTAD needs to adopt a classification capableof capturing the largest amount of data. As shown intable 4.5, the data availability of HS 2007 is the weakest inthe entire time series; data for 2008 is only available for 102countries. On the contrary, although HS 1996 collectedmore data, the number of reporting countries decreasednearly 12 per cent, from 166 in 2005 to 147 in 2008. Inthis context, the 2002 version of HS codes seems to best fitour needs and has therefore been selected as the methodologyfor this report.114 CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010