Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

8Policy strategies for the creative industriesa value-chain analysis. Investments, preferably foreign directinvestments, would induce knowledge innovation or the useof more advanced technologies, particularly ITC tools, facilitatingmarket penetration of creative products from developingeconomies in global markets. Creative entrepreneurshiptowards product-specific marketing strategies wouldcomplement the circle to improve export performance ofcreative products and services from developing economies inglobal markets.The C-ITET creative nexus would ease the process ofreconciling national cultural and social objectives with technological,industrial and international trade policies. Theaim is not only to strengthen creative capacities but also toassist developing economies to leapfrog into high-growthsectors of the creative economy by enhancing the competitivenessof their value-added creative products and servicesin world markets.Trade is a key component in this model because inrecent years, creative industries have been among the mostdynamic sectors in the global trading system. The averagegrowth rates of creative services are increasing faster thanthose of other more conventional services. While the growthrate of total world exports of services rose 13.5 per cent forthe period 2000-2008, the performance of creative servicesincreased more rapidly, for instance 18 per cent for advertisingand architectural services. Indeed, trade-related indexesare currently the only official and comparable indicatorsavailable for comparative analysis and to assist governmentsin policymaking for the creative economy.Nevertheless, caution is needed to avoid arriving atmisleading conclusions through exclusive reliance on ananalysis of trade statistics for creative goods and services.Obviously, exports figures alone do not capture the wholepicture of the contribution of the creative industries tonational economies. The greater part of creative/artistic revenuesoriginates from copyrights, licenses, and marketingand distribution of digitized creative content, for which disaggregated,reliable and comparable data to enable analysis atthe global level are unavailable. 3 Chapters 4 and 5 providemore evidence on this topic.Furthermore, in the absence of consistent internationallycomparable quantitative indicators for mapping andmeasuring the economic, social and cultural impact of thecreative industries and hence the creative economy at thenational and international levels, trade statistics are used fortrend analysis despite their lacunae. A number of trade indicatorsrelating to export performance such as market share,net trade, growth rate and per capita exports by GDP arepossible benchmarks that can be calculated on the basis ofnational trade statistics, as shown in the annex. In this regard,UNCTAD has undertaken empirical research with a view toidentifying the components for a trade and developmentindex 4 in order to assist governments in the formulation ofinternational trade policies. The level of trade openness andmarket access relating to trade liberalization of creativegoods such as tariff barriers and non-tariff barriers isanalysed in chapter 9.8.6 Targeted measures for strengthening the creative economyTo complement the creative nexus model, it is importantto review the production structure of the creative sectoras described in chapter 3, and examine some specific policymeasures that governments can undertake with respect to particularcomponents: the non-formal sector, the creative arts,SMEs, public cultural institutions and the corporate sector.8.6.1 Non-formal sectorInformality refers to that share of a country’s productionof goods and services which does not comply with governmentregulation. Informal activity is a common feature ofmost countries; however it is greater in size and more pervasivein developing countries. 5 Under the conventional view,the informal sector represents the inferior segment of a duallabour market, which expands counter-cyclically duringdownturns when workers are rationed out of the formallabour market. Recently however, this conservative view ofinformality has been challenged on various grounds, particularlybecause informal activity is not exclusively residual.3Presentation by E. dos Santos, “Capturing the Creative Economy in Developing Countries”, at the OECD seminar on “Measuring the Impact of Culture in the Economy”, Paris, 2006.4For a comprehensive analysis, refer to the UNCTAD publication, “Developing Countries in International Trade: 2006 Trade and Development.Index”.(UNCTAD/DITC/TAB/2006/1), Geneva, 2007.5Schneider and Enste (2000); and Tokman (2007).226 CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010