Council to push cultural industry

The Council for Cultural Affairs yesterday announced plans to develop the nation's creative industries, including establishing a platform to bring artists together with entrepreneurs and think tanks.

"We expect the revenues generated from the creative industries in Taiwan will double within the next six years and that employment in these sectors will expand faster than revenues when manpower from traditional industries and other non-tech sectors joins the creative industries," council Secretary-General Chang Lung (張瓏) said yesterday.

The scheme, called Creative Industry, aims to develop five areas: incubating and educating the talent required by creative industries; branding, marketing and capital for the industries; forming cultural exchange platforms; renewing urban areas using visual arts designs and establishing a think tank to help develop policies for research and development.

Creative Industry is part of the Cabinet's six-year National Development Plan to be completed in 2008. The council expects that Creative Industry can generate lucrative revenues by incorporating creativity into the branding, marketing and design of products for other industries.

"Creative Industry is about combining creativity from the arts and cultural sectors with the general industries," Chang said.

"The added value from creativity is expected to make the products more sustainable, unique and profitable," Chang said.

Chang gave the example of Snow in August, a high-profile theatrical performance sponsored by the council. The show generated more than 200 kinds of peripheral products, Chang said, generating enormous profits on top of the show's ticket sales.

Initially the council hopes to build up Creative Industry by creating exchange platforms between arts sectors and private entrepreneurs.

The platform is modeled on the UK's "Creative Entrepreneur Club," a private organization comprising artists and entrepreneurs that promotes bilateral exchanges for creative industries. The council plans to set up a club by May.

In addition to the efforts of the private sector, the government will set up cultural think tanks for cultural studies and incubation centers for creative talent.

Another scheme of the Creative Industry project is the development of "creative culture industry parks" as gregarious locations for the arts and creative activities.

The council plans to build five of these parks in Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Hualien.