Thailand to tap creative spirit for growth

In its aim to restructure Thailand as a "creative economy", the  National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) office is drafting the "Creative Industry Development Master Plan". The plan is expected to make businesses use "brains" rather than just capital, the NESDB deputy secretary general Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said.

Arkhom said he would submit a preliminary draft to the NESDB board and the Cabinet within a month, and the master plan to develop creative industries could be readied for a public discussion in the next six to 12 months.

"We can no longer import machinery and find workers to 'pump' goods, [thereby] learning nothing in the process. We need to restructure the economy to emphasise R&D [research and development] and innovation to create a higher value for Thai products and services," he said.

In his keynote speech "Reforming Thai Economy with Creativity", Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Dr Surapong Suebwonglee said a "creative economy" must stem from a social framework, which allows freedom in thinking, "disciplines in wisdom" and takes into account the individual's creativity.

"I have given a policy to the NESDB that now it's time to make the 'creative economy' really happen if we want to survive the 21st century," the minister said.

Creative companies have an "intellectual" approach to gain the competitive advantage, which is combined with appropriate technology and cultural assets. It does not require a huge sum to acquire high technology or slice their profits to become a creative company, Surapong said.

Creative industries can be the handicraft, film, food, tourism and other service organisations or any that utilises cultural assets. For instance, Thai recipes can be sold forever, he said.

But to build that creative economy, Thailand must first solve its rural problems to increase the income of the population.

"[Because] when the 50 to 60 million people upcountry have a higher purchasing power, they will consider buying products and services that are high quality. And this will force producers to improve quality," the minister said.

The government, meanwhile, has its duty to develop an intellectual infrastructure. "In spite of discussions six months ago [during the previous government], today, we are not thinking of dissolving agencies such as Thailand Creative and Design Centre [TCDC] and the Office of Knowledge Management and Development [OKMD]. Instead, we should think how many [more] such organisations we should have," Surapong said.

NESDB's Arkhom said there were no statistics available to provide a complete picture of the creative production in Thai economy. But if we consider only the five selected sectors - audio-visual products; architecture, engineering and other technical services; publishing; advertising; and radio and television services - the value of creative industries should, this year, exceed Bt100 billion.

Although the market value of creative industries is less than 1 per cent of the country's gross domestic product, the industries offer higher value addition to the economy.

Arkhom and Surapong were speaking at a seminar "Creative Thailand: Building Thailand's Economy with Creativity", held by TCDC last week.

Speaking at the same conference, the author of "The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas", John Howkins, said the core force of creativity is education. "You can't be creative without learning."

Howkins cited the example of Britain's learning environment, which allows for plenty of good libraries that encourage children to "wander around and learn by themselves".

And since global competition in the 21st century is not "dollar versus  [yuan]" but "minds versus minds", he suggested countries should try to build a "creative ecology" to welcome the "nomads" of creative people.

At the same conference, chairman of British organisation National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (Nesta) Chris Powell discussed eight key drivers of creative industries: demand, diversity, a level playing field, education and skills, networks, fit-for-purpose public institutions, intellectual property (IP) regime and business capacity.