Ashish Mishra, CEO Strategic Asia, European Office

East Asia’s Creative Economy

Opportunities and Policy Dimensions

Trends in Asia’s Developing Economies

• Rapid Economic Growth and Mass Population

Migration

• Reconsideration of development strategies due

to the need for economic diversification

• Urbanization and its impact on identity

The Challenge of Changing Identities

• The resulting change of social, cultural and identity norms

• Globalization accompanied by localization

• Changing norms, broader freedom of expression, and ever-increasing means of communication leading to the creative industries

Opportunities of the Creative Economy

• The creative industries– both a response to the challenges of urbanization and an opportunity for diversifying economic growth

• Asia’s increasing embrace of the creative industries

“The interface among creativity, culture, economics and technology, as expressed in the ability to create and circulate intellectual capital, has the potential to generate income, jobs, and export earnings while at the same time promoting social inclusion, cultural diversity and human development.”

UNCTAD, 2008

Between 2008 and 2012, the Indian fashion industry is expected to grow 178%

Japan’s share of animated cartoons broadcast on

television worldwide has reached 60%

Employment expansion in Malaysia’s creative industries registered a growth of 10.7% between 2000 and 2008, more than three times the national employment growth

In 2009, the Chinese film market reached a record-breaking £621 million– an increase of 43% from 2008. The industry has been averaging growth of 25% per year since 2002

In 2008, Indonesia’s software, advertising, and interactive games industries grew by 12.5%, 12% and 14.9%, respectively.

Estimates indicate that the value-added growth of the creative industries in Singapore has averaged about 6 percent annually between 2003 and 2008

Policy Dimensions

• Provision of infrastructure

• Provision of finance and investment

• Creation of institutional mechanisms

• Development of export markets

• Protection of rights of creators

• Establishment of creative clusters

(UNCTAD, 2008)

“We observe nowadays that ‘culture’ attracts the attention of men of politics: not that politicians are always ‘men of culture’, that ‘culture’ is recognized both as an instrument of policy, and as something socially desirable which it is the business of the state to promote.”

T.S. Eliot, Notes Towards the Definition of Culture, 1948

What We Can Do

• Situational and comparative analyses

• Knowledge sharing, network sessions, partnership facilitation, joint ventures

• Formulation of policymaking apparatus• Analysis of economic and social impacts of creative industries under the framework of national strategy

• National “branding” of creative industries

• Cross-sectional coordination and dialogue; government, private sector, international agencies, research institutions, civil society, and media

• Monitoring & evaluation

Summary

The harnessing of creativity brings with it

the potential of new wealth creation, the

cultivation of local talent and the

generation of creative capital, the

development of new export markets,

significant multiplier effects throughout

the broader economy, the utilisation of

information communication technologies

and enhanced competitiveness in an

increasingly global economy.”Cunningham, 2009