Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Why Develop the Creative Industries?

Source: MICA

For over four decades, Singapore has prospered through an investment-led economic strategy focused on traditional manufacturing and services industries. As we transit into an innovation-fuelled economy, the driving force in the next phase of our development will be the imaginative and creative capacity of our people. The new architects of the global economic landscape are those who apply their imagination, creativity and knowledge to generate new ideas and create new value. Multi-dimensional creativity - artistic creativity, business entrepreneurship and technological innovation - will be the new currency of success.

Worldwide, the creative cluster (arts and culture, design and media) has been observed to be among the fastest growing sectors of developed economies such as the UK and the US. Creative industries not only contribute towards the economy directly, they also have a powerful, indirect impact on the rest of the economy - by adding style, aesthetics and freshness to differentiate our products and services. To succeed and thrive, Singapore must tap on the creative cluster (arts and culture, design, media) and recognise them as one of the vanguards of economic growth.
How the Creative Cluster can benefit Singapore
Direct GDP contribution, exports and job creation
Differentiating products and services across all economic sectors
Enhance Singapore's creative buzz and international profile
Augment the creative capacity of our people

MICA will spearhead the Creative Industries Development Strategy to contribute towards the Economic Review Committee's (ERC) vision of a diversified, entrepreneurial and globalised economy for Singapore. ERC has identified the creative industries as one of the three new and promising service areas to promote, besides education and healthcare.

Creative Industries Development Strategy

Vision:
A vibrant and self-sustaining creative cluster to propel Singapore's Creative Economy.

"The Chicago-based Mr Lucaci, who holds a degree in industrial design, predicts that the Republic is just five years away from becoming a key industrial design centre in the region. "
- Streats, 10 March, 2003. Mr Iulius Lucaci is one of the Motorola designer behind V70 cellphone.
He has won BusinessWeek and Industrial Design Society of America gold awards and
Hanover Industry Forum awards.


MICA will spearhead a national collaborative approach involving all relevant government agencies, industry players and stakeholders to develop this new and promising industry sector.

Creative Industries Singapore has been formed within MICA HQ to coordinate policies and programmes for the creative industries. The group can be reached at Email: mica_cisg@mica.gov.sg or Fax: (65) 6837 9493.

Industry-specific blueprints have been formulated:
Renaissance City 2.0: build on the original Renaissance City blueprint to develop Singapore into a highly innovative and multi-talented global city for arts and culture. This blueprint is a follow-up on the Renaissance City Report in 2000.
Design Singapore: establish Singapore as Asia's leading hub for design excellence, where its design cluster is fully developed into a key driver of national competitiveness and creativity.
Media 21: develop a thriving media ecosystem rooted in Singapore with strong international extensions.

Cross sectoral initiatives have been launched:

Creative Community Singapore (CCS) : Positioned as the community outreach component of the Creative Industries Development Strategy as recommended by ERC, this key initiative was officially launched by MICA on Sunday, 24 July 2005. CCS aims to empower individuals, teams and organisations to initiate and pilot cutting edge projects that will unleash individual and community creativity, nurture creative ideas and build demand and capabilities for the Creative Industries. It is a unique people-private-public collaborative platform providing various forms of support, including facilitation, co-branding, marketing and co-funding. For more information on CCS, please visit www.creativecommunity.sg.

Crea©tive – Reinvent Your Future: A cluster of high profile creative events held in Singapore in November 2005, this marks an inaugural effort by MICA to present an international platform that celebrates and promotes the Creative Industries. Crea©tive provides opportunities for cross participation and cross fertilisation of ideas across the Arts, Media and Design Sectors. The key events in 2005 were Beyond 2005: The Global Summit for Creative Industries, Singapore Design Festival, Asia Media Festival and Creative Youth Xchange @ Gallery Hotel. These events have raised Singapore 's profile as a creative hub as well as provided a showcasing platform for local creative talents and enterprises. Building on the success of Crea©tive 2005, the umbrella platform will be deployed again in future years to put the spotlight on the Creative Industries

Resources:
Read ERC's Subcommittee Report on Creative Industries.

Download our Creative Industries Development Strategy brochure and Ministry of Trade and Industry's paper, Economic Contributions of Singapore's Creative Industries.

You can also read about Design Singapore in DesignSingapore's website and Media 21 in MDA's website.

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