Financing Creative Industries in Developing Country Contexts, a report prepared for United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) XI, High level Panel on Creative Industries and Development, June 2004 Sao Paulo Brazil

In this paper we address some issues of financing for creative industries in developing countries, including the relationship between financial investment and best practice. The discussion illustrates how different modes of finance are adopted – or how they might be employed to develop sustainable and export orientated creative industries. In addition, we touch upon the larger and more difficult question of why cultural products and services from developing countries struggle to make an impression in global markets. Three regions of the globe offer important and different lessons. These are the People’s Republic of China, Latin America, and Indigenous Australia. Examples from these specific ‘regions’ include the commercial mass media (exemplifying economies of scale and quality) as well as smaller innovative niche markets (illustrating unique and distinctive inputs). In defining the scope of our discussion we acknowledge sectors identified by the UNCTAD XI High Level Panel on Creative Industries and Development as the core creative industries, namely: motion picture industry, the recording industry, music, publishing, books, journal and newspaper publishing, computer software industry, music and theatre production, photography, commercial art and display, radio, television, and cable broadcasting industries (UNCTAD 2004). It should be made clear at the outset, however, that this discussion does not claim to represent a comprehensive survey of creative industries financing in what are highly differentiated global regions. This paper is organised as follows: First, we introduce some key issues in relation to financing creative industries in developing countries, including a basic value chain framework. The first section also provides a typology of the cultural sectors in relation to developing country contexts. This is followed by a snapshot of the kinds of markets that currently exist. The second section is a discussion of barriers to development and modes of finance currently being utilised or contemplated. In the third section we examine specific case studies (from China, Latin America, and Indigenous Australia) that illustrate the following: ￬ Shifts from a state-centred to a mixed financing model (China); ￬ Reliance on foreign finance leading to weaknesses in value chain and how private partnerships can overcome systemic distribution barriers (Latin America); and ￬ Hurdles facing micro-financing models and lessons for developing international niche markets (Indigenous Australia). This is followed by a synthesis of the findings of this study.