Interagency Consultations on Philippine Creative Industries

2 May 2017

National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Metro Manila

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), with support from British Council, are opening up pathways for a strategic creative industries mapping in the Philippines.

As part of the NCCA’s Philippine Cultural Statistics Framework, the NCCA and British Council organised last 2 May a one-day interagency focus group discussion. The discussion was opened by NCCA Executive Director, Rico Pableo, Jr., and facilitated by Dr Tom Fleming, director of UK-based firm, Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy. The event brought together government agencies to identify existing initiatives, challenges and the scope of data gathering within creative industries in the Philippines. It also pinpointed potential partners and stakeholders for the initiative.

More importantly, the FGD highlighted the importance of evidence in developing programmes and policies, and in measuring the impact of culture in social and economic development. These data will further help organisations like NCCA and DTI in planning and supporting future activities within the creative industries.

Participants included the Design Center of the Philippines (DCP), Department of Trade and Industries-Bureau of Investments (DTI-BOI), Intellectual Property Office Philippines (IPOPHIL), Department of Finance (DOF), National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), National Museum of the Philippines and Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) and other government representatives.

Based on NCCA’s framework, creative industries involve a range of creative goods and services in visual arts, design, film and video, digital media, and others.

From sharing sessions, participants discovered that there are already existing data sources within the creative industries, namely those from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), DTI, NCCA, IPOPHIL, and previous mapping done by Asian Institute of Management (AIM) and the Bayan Academy. Still, there are gaps in the data that need to be collected. All these will need to be streamlined and integrated into an overarching national strategy.

A comment from a NEDA representative called for a kind of mapping that will bring out the Philippines’ diversity, involving not just established enterprises but also organisations from minority and indigenous groups.

Conversations also gathered that there is a need to involve private sectors in the mapping. According to a DTI representative, the private sector has the data but organisations need ‘to see the benefit of using those data’ in order drive ‘high-level, long-term policy initiatives’.

Following the FGD, participants agreed that formalising a working group for creative industries mapping would be a logical next step, with NCCA and DTI spearheading the group.

“Mapping is a long-term project,” Fleming said, as he recounted the journey of creative industries mapping in the UK. He added that it took the UK nine years to arrive at an inclusive and usable snapshot of the country’s creative economy.

Dr Fleming will be presenting his recommendations for a national strategic mapping through a report.

The activity was part of the British Council’s programme to support Philippine ambitions through creativity and enterprise.

About Dr Tom Fleming

Dr Tom Fleming is a leading international expert on the creative economy, cultural and arts policy and creative cities and regions. His work focuses on advising governments, municipalities and institutions across the world to develop effective research, policy, strategy and action across the creative economy. He has led strategic research projects in every region, with a particularly strong track record in Europe, Russia, SE Asia, Caribbean, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Major clients include The World Bank, UNESCO, European Commission, British Council, Arts Councils, Film Councils, multiple governments, municipalities, cultural and educational organisations and NGOs.

As Director of Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (TFCC), which he set up in 2002, Tom leads an interdisciplinary and multi-lingual team which is delivering multiple projects across the world. He has led many research, strategy and evaluation programmes in over 60 countries and 300 cities and regions. Central areas of expertise include high level policy and strategy for the cultural sector and creative economy; deep knowledge on the relationship between culture, creativity and economic development; thought leadership on creative city planning models; and unparalleled expertise in sector investment, mapping, clustering and the spillover effects of the cultural and creative industries.