PH needs an attitude change toward ‘creative industries’
Credit to Author: Ben Kritz| Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2019 16:23:49 +0000
TRADE Secretary Ramon Lopez would like to see the Philippines become the “top creative economy” in Southeast Asia by 2030. That won’t happen unless the Philippines experiences a sea of change in attitudes toward the “creative industries.”
Interviewed earlier this week, Lopez said, “We need to look at creative industries that can bring in economic growth. Apart from making our creative talent pool more competitive and attractive in international markets, we are also pushing for more trade and intellectual property rights activities.”
“Creative industries” is nothing more than the broadest possible definition of the term “media,” although news media and advertising would not ordinarily be considered creative industries (though they probably should). They include publishing, music, filmmaking (movies and TV), visual arts, other performing arts, graphic design, and game and entertainment software design, among others.
Creative industries can be a good trade revenue stream because the inputs are small compared to the value of the outputs, and the costs of exporting services are miniscule compared to the costs of exporting goods. Unfortunately, these factors only apply to environments where the outputs of creative industries have a fair value, which is not the case here in the Philippines.
It is true that Filipinos are creative, and in terms of raw talent, or at least potential talent, can probably compete with anyone else in the world in many areas. And with a population with a median age of 24, the country has a vast potential workforce of tech-savvy creators. Lopez is not wrong in recognizing the potential. Making it productive, however, will require a great deal more than simply “tapping” it; in fact, a great deal more than Lopez or anyone else can provide through mere policy.
The biggest handicap to making Philippine creative industries a driver of economic growth is cultural. Creative work struggles against being undervalued almost everywhere in the world, but here it is hardly even considered work. Photographers, writers, visual artists, software creators and musicians who want to employ their particular talents as a vocation have just three options: Either give up after a period of being consistently snubbed by potential customers who are offended when a creator expects to work for more than a pittance, or for the “exposure”; if they have the means, take their chances in an overseas market; or if they do not have the means, or do not wish to leave the country, undervalue their own work just for the sake of keeping busy.
None of those three options provide any larger economic benefit to the country at all; the first two are simply different forms of brain drain, and the third just perpetuates the universal lack of respect for the value of creative work. It also does not help that a significant proportion of the country’s media – broadcast, print, film, and to some extent, advertising and digital arts like game development – are tightly controlled by a few large corporate entities. For the sake of maximizing revenues and profits these cultivate the lowest common denominators in creative output, and gobble up any resources that could be used to support a far greater number of creative workers, whose products are far superior in every respect but volume.
The natural response of the government, if it even realizes the problem, will be to implement some sort of policy along the lines of the “OPM mandate” imposed some years ago under the Aquino administration, which obliged radio stations to devote a certain amount of broadcast time to “original Pinoy music.” That measure, while well-meaning, did absolutely nothing to broaden opportunities or earning potential of local artists, save the limited number already under contract to the big media outfits.
If the change in attitude that will make it possible for more creative workers to profitably access the market is to come, it will have to come from the private sector in the form of venture capital for start-ups, companies devoting a certain proportion of their creative product needs to “independent” creators, and devoting a part of their corporate social responsibility budgets to initiatives that support and promote grassroots-level creative industry development. Those kinds of efforts would work toward the goal of having investment flow into the country, rather than maintaining the status quo in which those potential investors find it more cost-effective to attract the talent away from the country.
ben.kritz@manilatimes.net
Twitter: @benkritz