7th ASEF Public Forum on Creative Industries in Asia & Europe: Enabling Crossovers
Over 100 international civil society, private sector and government representatives gathered at the 7th ASEF Public Forum: Enabling Crossovers held on 18 October 2014 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for discussions on the importance of creative industries for sustainable growth and development in Asia and Europe. The Public Forum was organised by the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) in partnership with Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands and Het Nieuwe Instituut, the Netherlands and with the support of the European Cultural Foundation (ECF).
The Forum was formally opened by HE Jet BUSSEMAKER, Minister for Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands. It was organised in the framework of the 6th Asia-Europe Culture Ministers’ Meeting (19-21 October 2014, Rotterdam, the Netherlands). The Forum also marked the opening of the ASEM Culture Network Programme, a gathering of 40 cultural professionals from Asia and Europe for four days of workshops and site visits across the Netherlands, organised by Het Nieuwe Instituut.
The key messages that emerged from the Forum highlighted the role of creative industries in enabling crossovers between arts, business, science and education, the impact of the resultant innovation on helping achieve sustainable growth, and the scope for international collaboration and co-creation between Asia and Europe. These messages were presented at the 6th Asia-Europe Culture Ministers’ Meeting and the ministers expressed their appreciation and positively received the ideas and messages. They also acknowledged the ASEF-commissioned publication, Enabling Crossovers: Good Practices in the Creative Industries as a useful input to the ministerial meeting. ASEF’s role in supporting knowledge exchange between Asia and Europe and fostering bi-regional co-operation was also acknowledged in the Chair’s Statement of the ministerial meeting.
ASEF Report: Enabling Crossovers – Good Practices in the Creative Industries
Creative industries are emerging as key components of the global economic and development agenda. These industries have demonstrated the ability to employ culture to provide insights into and solutions for the pressing social and economic challenges of our times. Adequately nurtured, creative industries are capable of fostering innovation as well as stimulating sustainable human-centred development.
This compilation of 36 good practices in the creative industries across Asia and Europe showcase examples of policy and practice that may serve as inspiration for networking, collaboration and policy making. The mapping covers the four areas being addressed at the 6th Culture Ministers’ Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), namely creative skills, creative entrepreneurs, creative cities: sustainability, and creative cities: quality of life.
The publication was launched on the occasion of the first Senior Officials Meeting of the 6th ASEM Culture Ministers’ Meeting on 20 June 2014.
Foreword
The Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) is pleased to present this compilation of good practices in the creative industries as an input to the 6th Culture Ministers’ Meeting of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), to be held from 19-21 October 2014 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
Owing to its positive implications for job and wealth creation as well as for promoting sustainable development, social inclusion and urban regeneration, the topic of creative industries has gained the attention of ASEM Culture Ministers and is now featured as a significant priority on the ASEM cultural agenda.
As part of our mission to promote greater mutual understanding between Asia and Europe, ASEF – the only permanently established institution of ASEM – plays a key role in linking the grassroots experiences of civil societies to the political deliberations at the intergovernmental level. The key messages and case studies in this publication, therefore, aim to inform and inspire the Ministerial discussions on the benefits and challenges of the creative industries.
It is also our hope that this mapping will serve as the foundation for greater exchange of ideas and experiences between creative professionals and civil society organisations from both regions.
With this publication, we reaffirm our support to the on-going process of bi-regional dialogue on the creative industries.
We are grateful to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands and Het Nieuwe Instituut for their collaboration in this endeavour.
Ambassador ZHANG Yan
Executive Director
Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF)
Download
ASEF Publication Enabling Crossovers