Context and Aims of the Symposium
Cultural industries, also known as creative or copyright industries, include a wide array of economic activities, ranging from crafts through music and film to publishing and the flourishing multimedia industry. What cultural industries have in common is that they all use creativity, skill and intellectual property to produce products and services with social and cultural meaning.
In recent years, cultural industries have become one of the fastest growing economic sectors in industrialized countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom. While the more developed economies of the Asia-Pacific region are beginning to experience a comparable trend in the growth of the creative sector, the same advancement has not occurred in the less developed countries of the region.
In many countries of the region, cultural industries are not yet recognized as an economic sector in their own right. In fact, it is not always clear how to define the sector. This lack of formal recognition and an inability to promote the sector’s interests within existing planning and policy frameworks hamper the development of cultural industries as a truly significant economic force in the Asia-Pacific region. The relative invisibility of the cultural industries sector is reflected in the widespread absence of effective and large-scale programming for culture as part of an integrated strategy to achieve overall development goals. There is also a relative lack of baseline data on the cultural industries in the Asia-Pacific region. The absence of a conceptual framework and the lack of data render it difficult for decision-makers to make evidence-based decisions on how to invest to support the expansion of the cultural industries sector, or to know if their policy decisions and investments are having the desired results. Therefore, the economic potential of the region's cultural industries is not currently being realized.
The goal of this Senior Expert Symposium "Asia-Pacific Creative Communities: Promoting the Cultural Industries for Local Economic Development – a Strategy for the 21st Century", is to support the development of the creative sector as a key economic driver in the Asia-Pacific region by identifying and establishing a policy framework and an accompanying action strategy for the promotion of cultural industries with particular attention paid to developing countries. In view of this goal, the Symposium will:
- Discuss a conceptual framework for incorporating cultural industries as a component in national and local development plans.
- Elaborate a regional strategy, and coordination mechanism, to focus international assistance and national investment on the promotion of cultural industries.
- Adopt a data model project to guide the collection and analysis of data on cultural industries, which will allow countries to make evidence-based policy decisions regarding the sector.
- Draft a 10-year Plan of Action to promote the cultural industries in Asia-Pacific countries as a strategy for local socio-economic development, to be known as the Jodhpur Initiatives for Promoting Cultural Industries in the Asia-Pacific Region.
The value and effectiveness of the proposed regional approach to promote cultural industries -- consisting of a policy framework, a regional technical assistance mechanism, a data project, and an long-range action plan -- depend on broad consensus on strategy and strong inter-agency coordination. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has therefore joined forces with other leading international institutions in this field, notably the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and the World Bank to co-organize the Symposium.
The preparations for the Symposium have included consultation with a wide range of Asia-Pacific institutions and organizations. The Symposium’s Background Documents reflect the consolidated results of these consultations. These now-established interactions and institutional linkages provide the basis for a network which is planned as a means of implementing the activities proposed in the Plan of Action to be tabled at the Symposium.
Working Definition
The Symposium documents make use of the term 'cultural industries'. These industries are also referred to as 'creative industries', 'cultural enterprises', or 'content industries'.
For purposes of coherent discussion, the definition of "cultural industries" used in the Symposium documents is as follows:
Cultural Industries are defined as those industries which produce tangible or intangible artistic and creative outputs, and which have a potential for wealth creation and income generation through the exploitation of cultural assets and production of knowledge-based goods and services (both traditional and contemporary). What cultural industries have in common is that they all use creativity, cultural knowledge and intellectual property to produce products and services with social and cultural meaning.
The term 'cultural industries' is almost interchangeable with the concept of 'creative industries' but whereas 'cultural industries' emphasizes heritage, and traditional and artistic elements of creativity, the notion of 'creative industries' places emphasis on individual creativity, skill and talent in the exploitation of intellectual property.
The notion of 'cultural industries' is also slightly different from categorization based in the notion of intellectual property which is closely linked to the concept of information-driven economies and which includes such activities as scientific and technological innovation, software and database development, telecommunication services, and production of hardware and electronic equipment.