Creative Economy: A Feasible Development Option

Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.Argentina assumed the responsibility of centralizing and processingthe cultural information of each country, whichserved as a basis for the 2009 publication, Nosotros y los Otros:el comercio exterior de bienes culturales en América del Sur. The studyfocuses on the international trade of cultural products inSouth America, bringing together contributions from theMinistries of Culture of the associated countries. Thepurpose was to collect and analyse statistical data about thecultural sector in the region, in order to facilitate the formulationof cultural policies to support government effortstowards regional integration. The study recognizes that it isnecessary to synchronize the political discourse with concreteactions. It concluded that the trade balance of cultural productsin South America has a big deficit in the order of $3.7billion; total imports are practically double exports.According to the study, among the seven countries, onlyBrazil has a positive trade balance on cultural products. 42 Thisconclusion confirms the trade analysis of the CreativeEconomy Reports.Other studies measuring the impact of the creativeindustries in Latin America reflect two factors: the gradualavailability of statistics and primary information and thegrowing political will of governments to promote these initiatives.Statistical availability accounts for a two-way influenceon the development of different methodologies formeasuring the activities of the cultural industries. Thus, whenmore statistical information becomes available, more complexmethodologies can be designed, enabling a better diagnosis ofthe cultural sector of the economy. Also, the countries thatstarted preparing for reporting under the satellite account onculture have recognized culture as a full-fledged economicsector, as happened with respect to tourism some time ago.The range of the economic contribution of Latin Americancultural and creative industries varies considerably, reflectingthe cultural wealth of each country as well as the varyingavailability of statistics and methodologies employed. Again,efforts should be made to harmonize approaches to data collectionwith a view to making the most efficient use of scarceresources.As regards concrete policy actions, in Latin America,cultural production and activities have been predominantlyconsidered from the cultural rather than the economic perspective.The economics of culture, the terminology mostused by Ministries of Culture in the region, lies somewherebetween the public institutions in charge of culture and thosedealing with development issues, but joint efforts are uncommon.The conceptual debate about the creative economy inLatin America is progressing fast, influenced in part by theCreative Economy Report 2008, which prompted policy andresearch debates and drew the attention of other Ministries,in particular Economic Development, Trade, Labour andPlanning in several countries.Recently, the success of creative economy programmesof developed countries, in particular the creative citiesapproach, has been attracting the attention of policymakersand cultural researchers, although there is some resistance to theconcept of the “creative economy” due to its emphasis on intellectualproperty rights (IPRs). Arguments are twofold. First,the suitability of IPRs for traditional and communitarianknowledge is contested, and concerns arise regarding knowncases of bio-piracy and fears that a similar wave of foreignappropriation of cultural knowledge may happen. Second, awide range of cultural goods, services and expressions, such astraditional festivals, where IPRs are not applicable, produce ahuge socio-economic impact and sustain cultural diversity inthe region. Latin American countries exhibit different levels ofmaturity and awareness of the potential of the creative economyto foster development, and differences occur within individualcountries. Several initiatives are being articulated at themunicipal level in a growing number of countries. Time seemsripe to move from studies and debates towards more concretepolicy actions.Argentina: Cultural industries have for many yearsbeen the focus of many studies and growing interest in thecountry. A newly issued study 43 concluded that the contributionof culture to the national economy increased from 2.3per cent in 2004 to 3.5 per cent in 2009. The ThirdNational Congress of Culture was held in September 2010in San Juan, with nearly 5 thousand participants in attendance,including government authorities, cultural promotersand artists. A key outcome of the event was a call for the creationand implementation of a Federal Law for Culture andthe upgrading of the Secretary of Culture to the rank of a2The development dimension42 The publication is available from http://sinca.cultura.gov.ar/sic/comercio/comercio_exterior_sm.pdf.43 Hacer la cuenta, (2010) by Secreataria de Cultura dela Presidencia de la Nacion.CREATIVE ECONOMY REPORT 201053