Cultural Industries in Asia and the Pacific
Cultural Industries in Asia and the Pacific
Cultural industries, and the creative economy of which they are a part, include a wide array of economic activities, ranging from crafts through arts, music and film to publishing and the multimedia industry. What cultural industries have in common is that they create content, and use creativity, skill and in some cases intellectual property, to produce products and services with social and cultural meaning.
Because the creative sector has the potential to contribute to socio-economic development and poverty alleviation, and is a vital source for the cultural identities of individuals and communities, UNESCO aims to firmly embed the cultural industries within regional and national social and economic goals, strategies and programmes.
New Publication
Statistics on Cultural Industries: Framework for the Elaboration of National Capacity Building Projects
The purpose of this publication was to serve as a guide for the elaboration and implementation of tailor-made national projects to collect and analyse statistical data on creativity in general and cultural industries in particular. Download the whole document here (PDF, 1.4MB).
Recent Activities
Open Forum on "Measuring Creativity, Happiness and Well-Being" (08-12 November 2006, Hong Kong SAR)
In cooperation with the Centre for Cultural Policy Research, University of Hong Kong, UNESCO organized a forum on "Measuring Creativity, Happiness and Well-being" on the occasion of the Asia Cultural Co-operation Forum (ACCF 2006). The annual forum is organized by the Home Affairs Bureau of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government to promote cultural exchange and co-operation in the Asian region.
The UN Inter-Agency Working Group Meeting on Cultural Industries Statistics also took place in conjunction with the open forum on 11 November 2006.
Further details about the session are available here.
News and Events
UNCTAD XII, from 20-25 April, in Accra, Ghana.
The quadrennial ministerial conference of UNCTAD will be enlivened by a weeklong 'Creative Africa' festival highlighting the continent's contemporary art, music, dance and fashion.
The events will consist of the launch of the Creative Economy Report and the Creative Africa Initiative.
For more updated information about the events, please visit: http://www.unctadxii.org/en/programme/creative-africa/
Call for Papers for the Arte-Polis 2, International Conference and Workshop "CREATIVE COMMUNITIES AND THE MAKING OF PLACE: SHARING CREATIVE EXPERIENCES", Bandung, 8-10 August 2008.
"Poverty alleviation through creativity" by Samten Wangchuk. Read this article at Kuensel Online.
UNCTAD E-Newsletter on Creative Economy & Industries: Check the latest newsletter from UNCTAD Creative Industries here.
Call for Presentations for the Creative Clusters 2007! Scheduled to be held on 9-14 November 2007 in London, this international conference will examine the growth of the creative economy. More details are available here.
Cultural ProfilesCultural profiles of Cambodia and Laos are now available online. [more...]
AND NOW THE CULTURE DOLLAR: an article on cultural industries. It is time to give the thousands of crafts, skills and cultural legacies the recognition of being an economic sector in their own right. [more...]