13th China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo (ICCIE)
(25-28 October 2018)
Opening Keynote speech
‘UNESCO’s contribution to Cultural and Creative Industries’
H.E. Ambassador LEE Byong-Hyun Chairperson of the Executive Board
Beijing, People’s Republic of China Beijing Capital Hotel
25 October, 2018
Mr. DU Feijin, Standing Committee Member of Beijing Municipal Committee of Chinese Communist Party and Director-General of Publicity Department,
Mr. CAI Wu, Chairman of China Art Foundation and former Minister of Culture of China,
Mr. LIU Binjie, Chairman of the Publishers Association of China; Former Chairman of Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of the National people's Congress;
Former Director-General of the State Administration of Press and Publication,
Excellencies,
Distinguished guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am extremely honoured to be here in Beijing at the opening of the 13th China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo.
I wish to thank the Government of China for having extended its warm invitation for me to open this prestigious event. This Expo is an invaluable occasion to deepen international understanding of cultural and creative industry.
As the Chairperson of the Executive Board of UNESCO, I commend the long-standing commitment of the government of China to promoting culture, and advancing cultural and creative industries.
As you are very well aware, UNESCO is the United Nations specialized agency on matters related to culture. UNESCO works towards sharing cultural heritage and promoting the equal dignity of all cultures. By knowing each other’s cultures, people around the world can better understand each other. Ultimately, knowing each other leads to building international peace.
In 2014, President of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, paid a historic visit to UNESCO’s Headquarters in Paris. President Xi called for respect and protection of cultural diversity. He stressed the importance of maintaining and reinforcing exchange and dialogue between cultures.
A year later, in 2015, the governments around the world adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, also known as the 2030 Agenda. It is the first international agenda which acknowledges the power of culture for development.
(Importance of cultural and creative industries - economic and human)
Cultural and Creative Industries is a vast economic sector. Areas such as books, music, cinema, media arts are called cultural industries. Creative industries include advertising, architecture, design, fashion, and video games and many others. These are industries made up of people using their creativity in its many forms.
These industries are major drivers of the economies of both developed and developing countries. It is estimated that they generate annual revenues of 2.25 trillion US dollars and represent some 30 million jobs worldwide. It is particularly encouraging that the cultural and creative industries worldwide employ more young people aged 15 to 29 than any other sector.
A substantial percentage of those employed are women.
In Europe, the cultural sector is the third most important of its kind in terms of number of jobs, well above the automobile industry or telecommunications.
In Asia and the Pacific, people are increasingly becoming cultural consumers thanks to the rapid emergence of the middle class.
But of course, we cannot view cultural goods and services like any other commercial commodities. Behind each cultural and creative product, there are individual creators. Their creative works touch the souls of their fellow human beings, transmitting shared values and emotions, sometimes, generation after generation.
Like the adventures of Sun Wukong 孙悟空! The stories written in the 16th century of the heroic monkey has entertained many young boys and girls, beyond the boundaries of China. And to this day, Sun Wukong continues to inspire generations of new creators in different countries, to write comic books; produce animation films and TV dramas; and even make video game characters!
(Importance of sound cultural policies to promote innovation and development)
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Cultural and creative industries blossom when individual creative energy is supported through effective policies.
A UNESCO Artist for Peace, Ms. Mosteghanemi, an Algerian writer explained this nicely. She said that the creative economy is “an economy where the main wealth, namely the cultural product benefits from an environment that is favorable to its creation and its distribution.”
The entertainment industry of Korea, my own country, known as Hallyu or Korean Wave, has strong followings from around the world; from many countries in Asia but also in unexpected countries such as Saudi Arabia or Peru. It comprises various cultural areas including pop music and TV drama, extending out to fashion and the cosmetics industry. This global entertainment industry emerged thanks to the vibrancy of Korean private companies, supported by government policies.
So what should policy makers pay attention to?
Cultural policies, which can create balance between creation, access and distribution, as well as care of cultural heritage.
Cultural policies that provide robust protection of creative content.
Cultural policies that better protect the right to creation, right to fair remuneration and right to mobility, responding to the specific needs of artists and cultural professionals.
There are other ways that policy makers can support cultural and creative industries, especially concerning urban regeneration.
In different cities, creative hubs and clusters have emerged under the stimulus of policy makers.
From Medellin in Colombia with its library parks;
suburbs of Cape Town in South Africa with their creative hubs;
to Paju in Korea, devoted to the book industry.
Here in Beijing, there is the 798 Dhaishanzi Art District. As one of the most visited places in Beijing, it brings together galleries, art centres, artists' studios and design companies.
In Africa, many festivals bring together different cultural expressions and people.
The capital of Democratic Republic of Congo, Kinshasa hosts many music festivals.
In Dakar, Senegal, the Dak’Art Biennale of contemporary African Art brings together design and digital arts from around the African continent.
Next year is the 50th year of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, which celebrates films by African filmmakers and produced in Africa.
Today in a globalized world, promoting cultural and creative industries mean that the markets are not only within the domestic market. It reaches out to the global audience. This means, being confident in one’s own cultural identity while being a global citizen.
International cooperation at policy level can create enabling environments for artists and creators.
A particular mention can be made of New Zealand, which has changed their immigration laws to promote freedom of artistic expression. It has reduced immigration barriers for international performers, musicians and their support crews. It is expected that New Zealand artists will have the opportunity to acquire new skills and expertise through interaction with international artists.
(Overview of UNESCO’s work in the field of cultural and creative industry)
So, how does UNESCO support its Member States to promote culture, in particular cultural and creative industries?
UNESCO supports its Member States to integrate culture into their policies. These include areas such as preservation of heritage, promotion of contemporary culture, and heritage-based urban revitalization. One of UNESCO’s main functions is to provide international normative and legal frameworks.
Ladies and gentlemen,
You are all aware of the UNESCO Cultural Heritage list. More than 50 sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List are found here in China. In addition to these tangible sites, UNESCO also recognizes intangible cultural heritage, transmitted by communities, groups and individuals, generation after generation. For example, the Chinese Opera, a complex art which includes music, song and dance, martial arts, acrobatics and literature, is one of some 40 Chinese cultural practices inscribed on the Intangible Cultural Heritage List.
(2005 Convention)
On matters related to cultural and creative industries, UNESCO’s support to Member States is based on an international normative instrument entitled the 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. As of today, some 146 countries including the European Union have ratified this Convention.
This international agreement promotes granting of special status to cultural and creative industries in international, regional or bilateral trade and investment agreements.
This is to enable professionals, practitioners and citizens worldwide to create, produce, disseminate and enjoy a broad range of cultural goods, services and activities.
So how does UNESCO support its Member States concretely?
UNESCO supports countries to develop policies and actions that invest in culture and creativity in developing countries.
It does so through projects funded by UNESCO’s ‘International Fund for Cultural Diversity’.
The projects strengthen cultural policies and forges partnerships between public institutions, NGOs, the private sector and artists. Indeed, China is a generous supporter to this Fund.
UNESCO supported Viet Nam to design its very first ‘National Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries’.
In Haiti, a national mapping of the music industry has been carried out to inform the sector’s policy.
In Mexico, the cultural policy and management capacities of cultural actors in the public and private sectors have been enhanced.
In Mauritius and Costa Rica, UNESCO is helping to review legislations on the status of Artists.
UNESCO is currently supporting documentary film production and development in Uzbekistan, through funding from my country, the Republic of Korea.
(UNESCO Creative Cities Network)
Another key initiative is the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
Today, it is a network of some 180 cities from 72 countries. The cities work together to place creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their local development plans and to cooperate internationally. The cities promote areas such as Crafts and Folk Art, Design, Film, Gastronomy, Literature, Music and Media Arts.
I would like to express UNESCO’s appreciation for China’s active promotion of the Creative Cities Network both nationally and internationally.
The invaluable support comes through from the national authorities, the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, and local governments, notably Beijing Municipal Government, and from the Chinese private sector.
A total of 12 cities in China are part of the Network. This makes China one of the most active countries in this international platform of exchange and cooperation. Earlier this year, I was honoured to have taken part in the inauguration of Changsha of Hunan province as a UNESCO Creative City of Media and Arts.
More efforts are needed to expand this network to all parts of the world. Today, only four cities in Africa are part of the Creative Cities Network.
UNESCO looks forward to joint efforts with UNESCO’s Category 2 centre in Beijing, International Centre for Creativity and Sustainable Development (ICCSD) and other partners in expanding this Network.
We have high hopes for cities from developing countries to nurture creativity and cultural industries by joining and benefiting from the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
(Closing)
Ladies and gentlemen,
We, as people, enjoy our emotions together to feel our human-ness.
We are happier when we laugh together and our sadness becomes less when we cry together.
That is why people gather together in cinemas, concerts and festivals, even in the internet-era when we can watch movies alone in our own living rooms or listen to music alone through our smartphones.
The China Beijing International Cultural and Creative Industry Expo is an important opportunity for people from around the world to come together to discover and enjoy diverse forms of cultural expression and creativity.
In closing, I would like to express UNESCO’s deep appreciation of China’s efforts to promote cultural and creative industries. I hope that this Expo will be an opportunity for the international community to exchange with Chinese artists and entrepreneurs, and for international creators to showcase their work to the Chinese people.
As UNESCO’s mandate says, it is only by knowing each other’s lives through exchange of ideas and knowledge that we can truly achieve lasting peace!
With these words, I would like to once again thank the Government of China for inviting me to this Expo and I wish it every success!
Thank you very much.
