76th United Nations General Assembly Ministerial Side Event: Resilient and Inclusive Creative Economy for a Thriving Future

Statement by Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of UNCTAD

Excellencies,

Dear Friends,

It is a great honour for UNCTAD to address this important ministerial side-event on resilient and inclusive creative economies for a thriving future.

We congratulate the governments of Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates for organizing this event and thank them for the occasion to discuss and highlight key issues on such an important subject – a subject very close to me and my past activities. So let me assure you of the importance I devote to this ministerial side-event.

Let me also to take this opportunity to share with Indonesia my wishes for their greatest success as the oncoming chair of the G20. Indonesia, especially with its recent track-record of sustained development, has much to share with the world in these testing times, and it is high time for all of us to make use of this wealth of knowledge and effort.

We at UNCTAD attach great importance to cultural and creative industries (CCIs) because of their profound implications for trade and development and their transformative power across the economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development.

Particularly in today`s information economy, knowledge and creativity are fast becoming powerful – and let me say almost irreplaceable – engines of growth. This is certainly the case in the services sector. Trade in creative services remains for developing countries a means to diversify their exports, while at the same time increasing the participation of women and youth and fostering innovation.

Creativity lies at the heart of all the "soft skills" that the fourth industrial revolution demands of us all: flexibility, lifelong learning and adaptability. Creative jobs, at the same time, are probably the hardest to automate – we will see a robot lawyer long before we see a robot actress, a robot poet, a robot dancer. On the other hand, culture is a pillar of development because culture is the dimension where we can really judge whether growth has been true after all, whether it has produced in us more rounded and dedicated human beings.

Regrettably, the impact of COVID-19 on the creative industries has been massive with a stark contrast between the “losers” (e.g. tourism, transport and some personal services, and the “winners” (e.g. digital and ICT-based services that have prospered under-COVID-19 lockdown restrictions). A recent study by UNESCO estimates a $750 billion contraction in cultural and creative industry’s worldwide, with more than 10 million new unemployed, and reversals of around 40% in the CCIs of some developing countries.

Most of these setbacks were experienced by women and the young. As in so many other fronts, this pandemic has deepened the pre-existing vulnerabilities of CCIs.

We need to recover from the bottom up, and this means that we need to promote the sector that have been hardest hit. It is therefore time to strengthen financial and regulatory frameworks in order for the CCIs to flourish. Far too many artists and cultural entrepreneurs, lacking access to finance and digital markets, are condemned to informality and low productivity. Our recovery should focus on these "left-behind", and it is them who should spearhead it.

This pandemic has also highlighted the need of the "Maecenas State", a state that sponsors cultural and creative industries an invest to close the gaps in ICT and digital infrastructures. Coordinated actions and strong commitments from states, international actors, private sector and stakeholders are key for creating enabling environments for CCIs at large.

CCIs are key economic sectors, with the bonus of empowering women and young people, and fostering social inclusion. Technological advances have created opportunities for developing countries to access global markets for their creativity and cultural diversity in a way not previously possible.

Nonetheless, the challenges are immense and should not be underestimated. To overcome many obstacles and build back better post pandemic, more concrete support will be needed by improving developing countries` supply capacity, the quality of their products and their global reach.

Dear Friends,

This 2021, the International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development, has served as an opportunity to lay the foundations for building back better, from the bottom up and together. The response from governments and various stakeholders around the world to the UN resolution on creative economy has been heartening.

UNCTAD and other UN agencies have been working together to seize this opportunity. UNCTAD and UNESCO are co-chairing an inter-agency working group on the implementation of the resolution, joining forces to maximize expertise and impact.

It is our hope that this high-level ministerial meeting will further advance this important agenda. In just three months, this International Year for Creative Economies and Sustainable Development will be over, and there is still much to do.

Let me reaffirm the commitment of UNCTAD to join member States in their efforts to strengthening their creative economies for development.

Thank you.