Workshop on Covid-19 and the creative economy: challenges and opportunities

The Creative Economy has become a new source of economic growth in many parts of the world. Since the industrial revolution 4.0 deals significantly with creativity and innovations, it is paving the way for the Creative Economy to flourish. Being an abundant source of arts and culture, Indonesia has taken great initiatives to work together with other countries and UN agencies to develop the Creative Economy sector in pursuance of the SDGs. Indonesia’s efforts to mainstream the creative economy that have gained world-wide recognition are:

• The World Conference on the Creative Economy (WCCE) and the multi-stakeholder forum Friends of Creative Economy (FCE) in 2018;
• FCE 2019;
• UN Resolution International Year on Creative Economy for Sustainable Development: 2021, adopted on December 2019.

The prolonged COVID-19 pandemic has affected all sectors of life, including the cultural and creative industries and has posed significant challenges to most countries in the world in trying to cope with it. In light of this, this workshop, which was run by the Government of Indonesia, aimed to discuss and trigger actions to support the creative sector.

Speakers discussed issues related to:

• Global initiatives to mitigate the effects of the pandemic;
• National Policies to support the Creative Economy;
• The challenges and opportunities that COVID-19 pandemic has brought about; the ‘new normal’ of life that people are beginning to get accustomed to while observing standard health protocols; and how the Creative Economy is showing its resilience at a national level as well as at the regional level.
• Actions taken by creative economy actors to move the economy forward by utilizing the advancement of ICT.

Speakers included the:

• Director General of Multilateral Cooperation, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia (Keynote Speaker)
• Deputy Digital Economy and Creative Products, Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia
• Representatives from the United Arab Emirates
• Representatives from UNCTAD
• Vice Chairman of the Indonesia Chamber of Commerce on Creative Economy
• Chairman Bandung Creative City Forum
• Director of Trade, Commodity, and Intellectual Property, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia

Discussions provided valuable insights into ways in which Creative Economy sectors could cooperate and collaborate in in the near future.

The workshop identified ways of supporting implementation of the UN Resolution on International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development 2021, such as though the World Conference on Creative Economy in Bali on May 2021 and in Dubai at the end of 2021.

Participants, who were of various backgrounds, including creative economy actors, embassies, governments, international organizations (UNESCO and UNCTAD), and academics, represent ed55 countries and 8 international organizations, including UN and ASEAN. All had the same passion for restoring the global economy through the creative economy sector.