Creative industries to play greater economic role
22.10.2009
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) will continue to equip member states with appropriate tools to assess the economic contribution of creative industries to their economies.
Messrs Kalanje (left) and Diallo addressing delegates during the workshop
Christopher Kalanje, counsellor in the organisation’s Creative Industries Division, made this pledge during a two-day sub-regional meeting on the contribution and performance of creative industries, which closed at the International Conference Centre yesterday.
The meeting was jointly organised by the WIPO, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and the Culture Division in the Ministry of Community Development, Youth, Sports and Culture.
The session aimed to build on initiatives within the framework of cooperation with the OIF since 2002, focusing on copyright developments in Central, East and West Africa, as well as the Indian Ocean region.
It also aimed to comply with Development Agenda Recommendation 10, to boost the capacity of stakeholders in creative industries to understand the relevance and make best use of intellectual property to increase their competitiveness.
Mr Kalanje said countries that have made such studies have realised that these industries cannot be ignored. In some countries they have been growing at a faster rate than some of the major industries and sometimes even faster than the economy as a whole.
He said it is not a surprise, therefore, when we see at macro-economic level a growing interest in the economic contribution of creative industries.
“At macro-economic level, creators are increasingly realising that the intrinsic value of their creation lies in the intellectual property embedded in their work,” he added.
He explained that artists are increasingly becoming aware that by strategically leveraging their intellectual property and their creativity, they broaden the scope to create wealth individually and for their country.
Mr Kalanje also noted that in 2003 the WIPO developed a methodology to assess the economic contribution of the copyright-based industries, and since then more than 20 countries have carried out the study.
On behalf of the OIF, Amadou Diallo – who is in charge of the organisation’s cooperation project – said they were asked to set up a framework that would help the francophone countries to come up with better conditions for their development.
This, he said, was part of the recommendations from a previous meeting of justice and culture ministers of the French-speaking countries.
From those recommendations, the OIF came up with educational programmes to back up the initiative, notably in the field of copyright and related issues – all with the aim of promoting the cultural industries.
Mr Diallo also said the OIF’s contribution to the seminar will help to maintain existing cooperation and also to improve Africa’s economy by providing adequate resources, notably in the form of investment.