Ample room for Vietnam to develop creative economy: workshop

Statistics released by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) show that the global export value of creative goods increased from US$208 billion in 2002 to US$524 billion in 2020, of which Asia was the largest exporter.

The United States, Italy, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Korea, Poland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Japan constituted the top 10 exporters of creative products, with their export earnings last year reaching US$176.7 billion, making up 33.7% of the total creative goods export value globally.

Meanwhile, China, Hong Kong (China), Vietnam, India, Taiwan (China), Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Thailand made a list of 10 developing economies with the highest export earnings from creative goods at US$277 billion, or 33.7% of the world’s total.

The CIEM statistics revealed that Vietnam earned US$14.153 billion from exporting these products, ranking third among the top 10 developing economies.

At the workshop, CIEM experts said Vietnam has great potential to develop the creative economy as its industries such as crafts; fashion and design; culinary arts; performing arts; visual arts; film and media; information technology and software engineering; tourism and cultural heritage; music and entertainment; publishing and literature; digital content creation; digital marketing and advertising, have been developing considerably in recent times.

In addition, the local creative economy is supported by a young, technology-savvy population; preferential policies; rich cultural heritage; rapid digitalization; and rapid international economic integration.

Despite preferential policies in terms of investment, tax and land rent, Nguyen Anh Duong, head of CIEM’s of General Research Department, said there are obstacles to creative economy projects in Vietnam. He cited recently conducted surveys, saying in several provinces such as Phu Tho, Son La and Phu Yen, the creative economy is still in infancy and the notion is not yet understood consistently.

To take advantage of opportunities and promote the development of the creative economy in Vietnam, economic experts recommended that Vietnam should learn from experiences of developed countries such as the United States and the Republic of Korea in developing this economic model.

The workshop was held by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) in collaboration with the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).