Cultural and Creative Industries Worth Over 15 Billion Kuna Expect Growth in 2016

Cultural and creative industries employ more than 42,000 people and account for 2.3 percent of Croatia’s GDP. These results could be even better if Croatia soon receives a National Strategy for the Growth and Development of Cultural and Creative Industries.

In 2015, cultural and creative industries in Croatia united all sub-sectors (from architecture, design, gaming scene to music, film, media, advertising, and others) for the first time and, through the cooperation of the Croatian Cluster of Competitiveness in Creative and Cultural Industries (HKKKKI) and the Croatian Employers’ Association, formed a joint platform “Creative Croatia.” The goal is to significantly utilize the economic potential of this industrial sector, which generates more than 15 billion kuna in revenue annually and employs over 42,000 people. The biggest obstacle to greater growth and development of this sector is currently restrictive regulations and the failure to recognize these industries as important economic factors. For this purpose, research and mapping studies of this economic sector have been initiated for the first time.

United creatives are calling for the creation of better institutional and legal conditions, instruments for incentivizing financing of business innovations and activities in cultural and creative industries, and raising awareness of the significance and importance of copyright and related rights and intellectual property, the main foundations of these industries.

The results of the Mapping Study of Cultural and Creative Industries in Croatia confirmed global and European trends. This industrial sector is extremely resilient to economic crises, generating significant GDP and number of jobs. Thus, these industries in Croatia, with revenue exceeding 15 billion kuna, generate 2.3% of GDP, and their gross added value is 6.3 billion kuna. More than 42,000 people are employed in this sector, which represents 3% of the total employed in the country.

– Cultural and creative industries are components of every product or service presented to potential buyers, meaning that the work of creatives is present in 99 percent of all products or services on the market. The work of creatives should be encouraged and valued equally as all other stakeholders in the production process, and we will work on this in 2016 – comments the president of HKKKKI, Ivana Nikolić Popović.

Through the platform “Creative Croatia,” Croatian creatives and their associations organized the Summit of Creative and Cultural Industries and opened a broad public dialogue on this important topic. The national importance of KKI was publicly discussed with representatives of leading political parties. Everyone agreed on one thing – without cultural and creative industries, there is no market economy. This was recognized by the Government of the Republic of Croatia at the end of the year, whose seven ministries signed a Declaration of Intent to promote the development of KKI in Croatia. The next key step that creatives expect in 2016 is the adoption of the National Strategy for the Development of KKI.

– Creative industries are both carriers of innovation and drivers of innovation in other sectors, but unfortunately, they achieve confirmation of their successes in other markets that provide them with conditions for production and placement. We estimate that the cultural and creative industries sector will achieve growth of at least 10 percent in 2016, especially in the segment of computer games and new media. We will work intensively to create a supportive business environment in Croatia that will enable domestic creatives to realize their innovations in their own country and for the revenues from the sale of such products to remain in Croatia, explains Nikolić Popović and adds: – At all gatherings on competitiveness, there is always talk about expensive studies, costly changes, and tools for promoting competitiveness, but no one mentions the sector of creative and cultural industries and their impact on the development of innovations. I would emphasize that after all analyses and facilitation of the path to investments, in the end, no expert knows how to answer the key question. How to stimulate the economy? The answer is simple, creative and cultural industries and ICT.