The creative economy and culture have emerged as an important element in regional competitiveness and innovation activities. This can be seen in the strategies and programmes of the European Union as well as Finland’s national strategies and programmes and as practical measures.
Developing the creative economy and creative industries features strongly in the current Government Programme. The Ministry of Education enhances the creative economy through the framework of cultural policy. At a practical level, activities are financed through, for example, the Development Programme for Business Growth and Internationalisation of the Creative Industries 2007–2 013, co-financed by the ESF. The measures under the Cultural Export Promotion Programme 2007–2011 are implemented by the Ministry of Employment and the Economy and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in addition to the Ministry of Education, and thus represent a cross-sectoral approach. The Cultural Theme Group of the Rural Policy Committee supports the strengthening of the creative economy and cultural entrepreneurship in rural areas.
The Ministry of Education has strengthened the opportunities for growth in the creative economy through its strategic work. The operational programme for the regional development of culture, sport and youth policy, which was published in 2003, included cultural entrepreneurship as a theme for developing action strategies in regional policy. The creativity strategy work carried out in 2005 and 2006 created the foundation for the development of the creative economy. The report entitled Creative Industries Business Development: A Networked Operating Model, published at the end of 2006, set out the direction for many measures to develop business activities in the creative industries and cultural entrepreneurship. This publication acts as a continuation to previous publications by the Ministry of Education and provides, in particular, perspectives on the strategic development of the creative economy in different regions within programme and strategy work.
The creative economy as part of the cultural industries is an important sector. According to the Culture Satellite Account, over 102,000 people worked in the cultural industries in 2006. This figure represented 4.19 per cent of Finland’s entire employed labour. According to Eurostat, the share of the cultural labour force of the entire labour force in Finland in 2005 was the third largest in the EU countries after Holland and Sweden. The added value to the national economy produced by the cultural industries was around EUR 4.6 billion (3.2%) in 2006.
Globally, the international trade in products and services in the creative industries increased annually from 2000 to 2005 by 8.7% according to the UN’s Creative Economy report. The share of exports rose from 1996 to 2005 from USD 227.5 billion to USD 424.4 billion. The share of services increased annually by 8.8 per cent. The world is currently experiencing a global recession, so employment in the cultural sectors is important. The sector involves not only public and third sector companies but also many micro-companies and SMEs, craftsmen and freelancers, who are self-employed in spite of the recession. The production of intangible services constitutes a significant part of the activities in the cultural industries. There is a particular need to strengthen service production and innovation because they can meet the challenges posed by the decline in the consumption of goods as a consequence of climate change and sustainable development.
Many traditional sectors are currently in difficulty. The challenge for Finland is to find a new direction for innovation policy at the national and regional level. The creative economy and culture offer one opportunity for new initiatives to strengthen Finnish innovation activities. With this publication, the Ministry of Education and Cultural Theme Group hope to offer new perspectives on the sector to those working in the creative economy and especially regional developers. At the end of the articles, the different authors present their opinion on development proposals that could be implemented in various development activities.
The Ministry of Education and Cultural Theme Group wish to thank all the article authors and the individuals that have participated in preparing this publication.