MANILA: Creative Philippines was the battle cry used at a highly interactive roundtable organized by Arangkada Philippines last week to discuss “policy changes, initiatives and recommendations” to get “Creative Industries” into the position they deserve. And we were not talking about the position in this country only, we had clear ideas what role Creative Philippines should play in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and beyond.
The excited and exciting participants came from all major creative sectors, with main focus on:
It was well understood that the Creative Economy of the world today goes beyond the subsectors mentioned above; it recognizes the role of creativity throughout the economy. It includes policies that nurture Creative Clusters and encourages cities and communities to embrace creativity to attract creative people to live and work together.
It became obvious that the creative Filipino makes the difference, from performing on Broadway to creating animations for studios in Hollywood and Central Europe; from designers in many parts of the world to more than 1 million creative Filipinos working as freelancers from Batanes to Tawi Tawi. It is unfortunate that the contribution of creative industries to the Philippine economy remains unmeasured.
