Unleashing Sri Lanka’s Creative Economy: A Path to Sustainable Growth
View(s):As Sri Lankans with all changes in the political and social landscape of the country, there should be better policies for long-term sustainable development. Our nation has encountered different blows which are unique among other countries. The Easter attack, Covid 19, and the economic crisis triggered many hardships for the general public. We can see that there has been no proper policy planning in the country for more than seven decades. Anyway, now is the time for us to have a paradigm shift in the economy of Sri Lanka.
Creative Economy
In Sri Lanka, we are still concentrating on traditional exports like tea, rubber, and coconut with garments, and something ‘out of the box’ is required to compete in the world market. This article focuses on how the concept of a ‘creative economy’ can be used as a new strategy for the country to achieve sustainable economic development.
The concept of a ‘creative economy’ is not new at all. It is better to discuss the creative economy with an example of “Nollywood”. The Emergence of ‘Nollywood’ is remarkable and it came into the world picture within 20 years. According to PwC, Nigeria’s film industry contributed 2.3% to the country’s GDP in 2021, amounting to $660 million (239 billion naira). We have to study the success story of ‘Nollywood’ to see whether we can apply that to our Ranminithanna Film Village which also with more potential. .University undergrads In Sri Lanka can conduct a study on ‘Nollywood’ and see the Key Successive Factors (KSF) and uniqueness in the film industry. We can then see how we can apply these models (with some modifications) in the Sri Lankan context with Ranminithenna.
It is worthwhile to understand the meaning and implications of the creative economy (sometimes referred to as the creative industry). John Howkins, the author of ‘The Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas,’ refers to a range of economic activities that are concerned with the generation or exploitation of knowledge and information. Howkins divides the creative economy into fifteen sectors, which are: 1) Advertising; 2) Archictecture; 3) Art; 4) Crafts; 5) Design; 6) Fashion; 7) Film; 
Music; 9) Performing Arts; 10) Publishing; 11) Research and Development; 12) Software; 13) Toys and Games; 14) TV and Radio; 15) Video Games
According to Landry & Bianchini (1995), “The industries of the twenty-first century will depend increasingly on the generation of knowledge through creativity and innovation.” Human capital can be considered important and KSA factors – namely, knowledge, skills and attitude – as prime factors that will govern the world economy at this moment.As the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCAD) “significant 3% contribution to global gross domestic product (GDP) makes the creative economy a powerful emerging economic sector that is being strengthened by a surge in digitalisation and services.” So the effect of the creative economy on any country cannot be underestimated.
Creative Economy and Yohani
Recently we have witnessed the success story of viral marketing in Sri Lanka with the glocalisation of the Song of “ Manike Mage Hithe” . The Manike Mage Hithe cover by Yohani and Satheeshan has exceeded 250 million views and trending mainly in India and the globe by translating the same into Hindi, Malayalam, Urdu and Tamil. This can be considered one of the historical events in the music industry in Sri Lanka. If you need to “go global” we need to understand the global trends and all environmental factors. If we analyze trendy songs such as Manike Mage Hithe most of the time they can be seen targeting the new generation/s (Y,Z and Gen A). One decade back from India we can see a song by Kolaveri D which was successful at that time in the globe. Unlike Sri Lanka, at that time, the Indian Higher Education sector took that as one of the success stories in Viral marketing. The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) ranked amongst the topmost business schools in India and Asia conducted some discussions on this with some own case studies. Even in IIM Ahmedabad, there was an hour-long discussion between the professor and students of that class. Most of the Professors of IIMs – Bangalore, Rohtak and Lucknow – have played the song in class and reflected on the strategies, including viral marketing. Furthermore, the marketing club of IIM Ranchi organised a seminar on campus to study the strategy that has turned the song “Why This Kolaveri “into an overnight rage. The popularity of songs such as Manike Mage Hithe and Why This Kolaveri Di in social media can be considered a message reiterating the power of creativity and innovation with the essence of new technology. It is truly an internet generation that articulated the fashion and trends in the world. This is one example of the practical implications of the creative economy in Sri Lanka with the blessings of young talents such as Yohani Diloka de Silva.
Conclusion
What we have to understand is the importance of moving away from traditional markets such as manufacturing and seeing the creative industries as a key strategy in a new knowledge economy(Abeysekera,2011). Two years back a webinar hosted by Central Bank’s Centre for Banking Studies in my presentation I had set the ground conditions for having a creative economy for the country’s future development (available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkg91Pev4TM). The same presentation was reviewed by Dr. W.A. Wijewardena in his article titled “A creative economy for SL’s future development” (https://www.ft.lk/columns/A-creative-economy-for-SL-s-future-development-Much-more-to-be-done-to-realise-the-goal/4-716359) . The time has come for us to take initiation and the goal of Policymakers and intellectuals should understand the importance of this. This crisis has created an opportunity to “stop and see” (reflect) our policies in the long run. So in this new beginning of all political changes, there is a need for the nation to have new policies in the economy as well.
(The writer is a Professor in Management Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka You can reach Professor Abeysekera via nalinabeysekera@gmail.com.)
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