Creative Industries - Ten-step growth agenda
On 27 November the European Creative Industries Alliance launched an action plan to maximise the contributions of European creative industries to our economy.
When art meets business creative industries are born. European has never been short of creative talent. The challenge is how to transform this talent into economic benefit. Creative industries arise from individuals exercising their imagination and exploiting its economic value, for example in books, films, music, TV, games and other copyright based products.
Being at the crossroads between arts, business and technology, creative industries are in a strategic position to trigger growth and jobs and stimulate innovation spill-overs in other industries. But SMEs in this sector can struggle with challenges such as digitisation, protection and exploitation of intangible value, access to finance and business development.
The ECIA's recommendations, issued at a conference in Amsterdam, are derived from the three years of policy learning and experience gained by the Alliance over its lifespan. They are divided into three main fields of action:
- Stimulate innovation and growth by enabling cross sectoral collaboration
- Build better business support and access to finance in effective regional ecosystems
- Measure and raise awareness of the value of the cultural and creative industries
Highlights of the plan include actions to facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration - such as an innovation voucher scheme, and also measures to ease access to finance - such as the use of microcredits, repayable contributions, peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding. For the full list of recommendations please consult the "Create! Innovate! Grow!" 10-step growth agenda.
About the European Creative Industries Alliance (ECIA)
The ECIA is one of the first concrete measures at European level promoting creative industries and their impact on the European economy. The Alliance's overall task is to advocate the role of the creative industries as a catalyst for innovation and structural change and to propose new policy instruments that will maximise their contributions to the European economy. 3 750 SMEs have already received customised innovation support as a result of the Alliances actions.
