Capitalism is undergoing an epochal transformation from a mass production system where the principal source of value was human labour to a new era of ‘innovation-mediated production’ where the principal component of value creation, productivity and economic growth is knowledge.

‘Creative Britain - New Talents for the New Economy’ is a strategic report aimed to develop creative industries in the UK, produced by Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), in cooperation with Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) and Department for Innovation, Universities & Skills (DIUS). This report gathers information involving several projects that reveal the UK government’s determination to push forward with the creative economy.

‘Creative Economy Report 2008’ is UNCTAD’s first report that gathers information and definitions of creative economy and industries involved with creativity from various UN organizations, including UNCTAD, UNDP, UNESCO, WIPO and ITC.
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This report, produced by the Council of Europe and ERICarts Institute, gathers information on the trends and execution of cultural policies in 41 European countries, including the passing of new laws, organisation reformation, establishment of business-specific overseeing units, financial support, statistics information collation, interesting highlights, and comparative tables of information of various countries.

By Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics, University of Hertfordshire, in cooperation with The School of Economics, Xiamen University

China’s cultural industries are developing rapidly, with $34 million of economic value in 2006. The government increases its budget allocation by 17% per annum to build an infrastructure that supports the development of cultural industries. This report is produced for the purposes of offering suggestions on categorising the creative industries and pushing forward with the creative clusters in China.

US’s International Intellectual Property Alliance (IPA) has hired Economists Incorporated to collate information and produce a report on economic figures and employment in the US arising from copyright industries since 1990. The 2006 report shows that the copyright industries are still the fastest growing industries in the US, valued at $1.4 million in 2005 or 11.12% of GDP.

While governments across the world are starting to realize the importance of creative industries and their impact on the economic and employment growth, the collation of information and the preparation of creative mappings in order to formulate policies are also increasingly critical. This UNESCO’s report shows how essential cultural statistics and information are, together with UNESCO’s role in developing standard information-gathering methods as a tool used by different countries around the world.

In 2002, the UK, the US and China manufactured a total of 40% of the world’s cultural products, while the Latin America and African countries’ share of such products accounted for less than 4%, combined.

UNESCO produced this report to collate information on international trading of cultural products such as books, CDs, video games. It suggests new ways to measure the value of the trading to highlight the importance of culture and its impact on the economy, society and human resource development.

According to the report, the international trading value of cultural products increased from $38 million in 1994 to $60 million in 2002. The total market value of cultural and creative industries was $1.3 billion.

This report by UNIDO offers thoughts on creative industries by talking about basic characteristics, socio-economic factors, major components, along with policies that support development of sustainable creative industries. In addition, the report is a collection of interesting case studies. It is very suitable for developers and policy makers, as well as those who are interested in developing economy, innovation and competition using creativity, entrepreneurship and a designing community as tools to enhance the quality of life.

A few years ago, Copenhagen Institute for Futures Studies (CFIS) conducted a study on factors that have impact on the future. After reporting the study outcome which shows that society will be driven forward by creativity and innovation, CFIS produced a report called ‘Creative Man’ to explain the increasing need for creativity and innovation when mass production is no longer a tool to enhance competitiveness. The report also touches on technology and cultural changes as key factors in developing creativity and innovation.