The art of development: investing in the creative economy

The Pacific islands have long been seen as having limited economic potential. This paper explores how the creative economy - based on art, music, film, media, etc. - can be an important element in the broader development agenda.

The paper figures that across the Pacific, rhetoric of cultural importance is often heard, but rarely seen translated into national development priorities.

Findings are that:

• the creative sector in the Pacific islands is largely informal and making a living from a creative or artistic pursuit in the region is not an easy thing to achieve
• prioritising the creative economy is missing in discussions with donors about developmental assistance
• as a result, the burden of developing and promoting the creative sector mostly rests within the arts community

The document indicates that prioritising arts and culture can be a start-point for governments and donors. In this respect, there are opportunities to promote creative economy through tourism and exhibit creative works in metropolitan markets.

Conclusions are as follows:

• developing and maintaining a vibrant arts and culture policy is central to nation building in the Pacific region
• appropriate commercialisation that assist with both preserving and developing culturally inspired creative pursuits is required
• still, policy and practice need to protect rights associated with ownership of cultural knowledge, particularly with respect to asserting authenticity
• in addition, more and better information is needed on both the supply and demand sides to know what the economic realities are of the creative sector
• critical policy initiatives include providing infrastructure, financing and investment in the arts and establishing appropriate legislative frameworks
• moreover, developing export markets, encouraging the establishment of creative clusters and setting up mechanisms for effective data collection are also vital