Public-private sector collaboration towards a creative economy
While Sri Lanka’s economy has shrunk by 3.6 per cent in 2020 following two blows (repercussions of Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 and COVID-19 impact in 2020), there is a lot of positives and challenges the private and public sector must face in moving forward.
A collaboration between the private and public sector can only leave room for a creative economy of Sri Lanka, says Prof. Nalin Abeysekara, Head of the Department of Marketing Management, Open University of Sri Lanka. He made this remark during a webinar organised by the Centre for Banking Studies titled ‘Creative Economy: Strategy for Sri Lankan Economic Development for Future’.
He said that the country’s economy is expected to have contracted by 3.6 per cent in 2020, while the GDP growth in the first quarter of 2021 is between 3.0 – 3.5 per cent while emphasising on the positives that Sri Lanka should be looking at. “A strategic window has opened for Sri Lanka and this is the best time to start a new business. It’s a challenge to incorporate Sri Lanka’s economy into a creative economy. But there are many new businesses starting with a creative goal. The budget for 2021 also offers many reliefs for small and medium scale enterprises,” said Prof. Abeysekara.
He stressed that the country needs to understand the importance of moving away from the traditional markets such as manufacturing and look into creative industries as a key strategy in the new knowledge economy.
Prof. Abeysekara quoted John Hawkins who defines a creative economy as “(a) creative industry refers to a range of economic activities which are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information”.
The concept of a creative economy can be best summed up as the income earning potential of creative activities and ideas. The creative economy encompasses careers in photography, graphic design, fashion design, filmmaking, architecture, publishing, video games and many more. Hawkins divides the creative economy into 15 sectors such as advertising, architecture, art, crafts, design, fashion, film, music, performing arts, publishing, research and development, software, toys and games, TV and radio and video games.
Prof. Abeysekara also noted that the Sri Lankan education system should produce more and more entrepreneurs and not just employees. “For a creative economy there should be collaborative projects with the Central Bank and the private sector,” he added.