WEF recently announced the global competitiveness rankings for 2008-2009. Thailand dropped from ranking 28th to 34th (see the Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009). Meanwhile, according to the rankings conducted by IMD, Thailand slightly went up to the 26th position (27th in 2008, see the World Competitiveness Scoreboard 2009).
Creative industries have increased employment across the world, with 50% higher growth rate compared to other industries. Employment in the creative sectors accounted for 5.8% in the US and 9% in the UK.
China’s creative industries grew by 17.6% between 2000 and 2005, with $61 billion of exports value representing 18% of world exports.
The creative industries’ growth rates in developed countries range from 5 to 20% per annum. In the EU, the overall growth of the industries between 1999 and 2003 is 12.3% higher than the growth of overall economy.
Creative industries saw an average growth of 8.7% in world exports over 2001-2005.
The US copyright industry accounted for $12.5 trillion or 11.12% of GDP in 2006.
UNCTAD defines creative industries as “the cycle of creation, production and distribution of goods and services that use creativity and intellectual capital as primary inputs.”
The value of world exports of creative goods and services reached $424.4 billion in 2005 (representing 3.4% of total world trade), with 40% accounted for by the values of the US, the UK and China, combined.
UK’s creative industries accounted for 7.3% of GDP, second only to the finance sector; grew by an average of 5% per annum, which is nearly twice the rate of the other sectors. About 1.8 million are employed in the creative industries.
