Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

2The development dimensionThailand: The government has established a roadmapfor the development of Thailand’s creative economy. InMarch 2009, UNCTAD assisted the Thai government toconvene a Policy Dialogue on the Creative Economy held inBangkok. In August 2009 the Creative Thailand policy waslaunched and the National Creative Economy Committeeestablished. Later in the year the creative economy became apriority sector at the Tenth National Economic and SocialDevelopment Plan, emphasizing the importance of creativityand innovation as the main element to bring about economicstability on a sustainable basis. 32 Thailand defined two mainobjectives of its strategy: first, to develop Thailand into a creativeindustries hub of ASEAN, and second, to increase thecontribution of the creative industries from 12 to 20 per centof GDP by 2012. Moreover, the government is prepared toset up the National Creative Economy Agency, a new organizationunder the Prime Minister’s Office, to handle themobilization of the creative economy on a full-cycle basis. 33The Ministry of Trade is organizing an important internationalforum to be held in November 2010 with a focus onthe prospects for the creative economy for ASEAN countries.UNCTAD was invited to be a co-organizer of the event.Another group of Asian countries with less emphasison creative-industry development, but where craft industries,furniture making and handloom industries have traditionallybeen widespread secondary employment activities, includes,Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Lao People’s DemocraticRepublic, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. Despite the differencesbetween the countries in this group, their creativeeconomies have certain common features, including the factthat the majority of economic activities relating to thecreative industries are in the large urban centres.Finally, there are countries where the creative industriesare practically unnoticed as part of the economy, especially inthe Pacific Islands. In these countries, creative industries existmostly in terms of more traditional cultural activities of communitylife. Throughout the Asia and Pacific region, however,the cultural sphere is an area for the search of identity. Thissearch is a real need for many people of the region whoexperience the onslaught of social change and increasing economicinsecurity. This is coupled with the different valuespresented by cultural goods and services that incorporate oldand new, traditional and contemporary, global and localaspects. In 2009, under the ACP-EU cooperation program,UNCTAD, ILO and UNESCO launched a pilot project toprovide technical assistance aimed at enhancing the contributionof the creative industries to employment and trade inFiji. A stakeholders meeting brought together about 30participants from the government, cultural institutions, artistsand creative entrepreneurs, resulting in a lively debate aboutthe expected impact of the project on national policies; a planof action is under consideration to be implemented in collaborationwith the government, the Fiji Arts Council and otherrelevant institutions.The Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum is an importantannual event in Hong Kong. The forum is attended byMinisters of Culture from Asia and creative entrepreneursfrom the Asian region with the purpose to enhance regionalconnections through cultural cooperation and to exchangeviews on recent developments. One such forum on the conceptof branding concluded that a successful cultural brandwill not only contribute to the long-term sales of productsand services, but can also improve a country’s overall image.The Asian Cultural Ministers referred to collective efforts todevelop stronger government-to-government links across theregion to enhance the creative economy.2.4.3 Central Asia and the Middle EastCertain countries of Central Asia, such as Mongolia,are still adapting to the transition to a market economy, andwithin this scenario the concept of “creative industries” is notone that figures very prominently. This has partly to do withthe different traditions concerning intellectual property rightsand weak institutional support. While the cultural and artistictraditions are very rich and diverse in the region and holdconsiderable potential for commercial development, the corecultural and handicraft industries in these countries are ingeneral part of the informal economy and are not yetpositioned as part of any creative economy. The nomadictradition in all of these countries is a particular aspect of thepotential development of creative industries. Nevertheless,while there are big differences among the distinct parts of theregion, there are also some similarities inside certain groupsof countries, as presented below.32 For further information see UNCTAD Creative Economy e-News, No. 9, June 2009.33 Thai News Service, “Thailand Attaches Greater Importance to Creative Economy”, May 2010.50 CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 2010