Launch of the Creative Industries Strategy

Launch of the Creative Industries Strategy
SAND Conference, Taliesin Theatre, Swansea, 23rd November 2004

Good morning. It's a real pleasure to be back at the SAND Conference this year. I know last year's Conference generated a huge amount of interest both in Wales and from much further afield. I very much hope that this year’s Conference will be even more successful.

Indeed over the last few years I've attended SAND - I've seen for myself how it's grown into one of the most significant events on the Animation and Creative Industries calendar.
And the Creative Industries in Wales have the potential to be one of the most successful - and fastest-growing - sectors of our economy.
And key to building what I refer to as the dragon economy - a high value economy, driven by knowledge, innovation and creativity.
That's why today I am using this conference to launch a major initiative - my Creative Industries Strategy.
And it's entirely appropriate this strategy should be launched here in Swansea.
Because this part of south west Wales has produced a host of world famous creative artists - with Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton, Anthony Hopkins and Catherine Zeta Jones all hailing from this region. And of course in more recent years Wales has produced a wealth of creative talent in bands such as the Manic Street Preachers, Catatonia, the Stereophonics and the Super Furry Animals.
And of course what links all of this talent - in the past as well as the present - is that they all had to leave Wales to exploit that talent - and that most of the tremendous wealth generated was generated outside Wales. Another example of the old adage that ‘you have to get out to get on’. The Creative Industries strategy that I am launching today seeks to redress that - to retain that wealth generating and employment creating capacity in Wales.

We have made some progress in the past and we have some high quality businesses like Llanelli-based Tinopolis - the largest independent media production company in the UK outside of London. I am therefore delighted that Ron Jones, the Chair of Tinopolis is here today for this launch.
And indeed through our various existing government programmes we have already given significant financial and logistical support to the creative industries in Wales through our various grant schemes. For example, more than 30 businesses operating in the film, television, new media and music sectors around Wales have received support through these schemes. One of these companies is Boomerang and I am pleased that Huw Eurig-Davies from Boomerang is here today.
But we need to make step change in the support we provide for these companies and this sector and I believe the Creative Industries Strategy I'm launching will make the most of these strengths.

It has been developed in close consultation with the industry and with key stakeholders. I would like at this stage to pay tribute to some of those who have done so much of the work in developing this strategy. Firstly to Dai Davies, Board member of the Arts Council Wales - and our very own ‘Rock Moghul’! - who has brought his tremendous expertise and knowledge of the music industry to developing this strategy. I would also like to thank James Price and David Swallow of the WDA who have also added their considerable expertise.
It reflects and responds to the needs of the Creative Industries Sector.
It sets out in very clear terms our approach to taking the industry forward.
It commits to acting in partnership to -
Support and encourage Welsh based creative industry businesses
And to stimulate further growth in the Creative Industries in Wales.
But what do we mean by the Creative Industries?
It is of course one of those terms that sometimes means different things to different people. But I am very clear about its definition.

It means companies that have their origin in creativity and whose principal route to wealth and job creation is through the generation and exploitation of intellectual property - (IP) - or copyright
It's this IP exploitation that leads to a significant contribution to GDP growth.
Film, Animation, TV, New Media, and Music are all encompassed by this. And it's my belief that Welsh creative IP businesses can exploit new opportunities.
But to do so they must create, retain and exploit their IP and become -
demand led or produce products attractive to UK and international markets.
And become more profitable by retaining a proportion of their IP, investing in new products and entering new markets.
My Creative Industry strategy is intended to help them do just that. By helping our creative industries to create, retain and exploit their IP.
And that is why I am delighted to launch it today at the SAND conference because together with enhanced public sector understanding of the creative industries sector, the Strategy I am launching today will deliver -
A new £7 million creative IP fund, together with more strategic investments in Wales-based creative businesses.
Re-focussed training and education.

A new, strategic approach to providing business support for the creative industries.
The Fund will help companies retain control of their IP.
And the new strategic service will for the first time bring together into one place support for the different parts of the commercial creative industries.
And it's a move that mirrors recent creative industry experience of company mergers, industry consolidation and closer collaboration between companies in different parts of the creative industries.
So our creative industries are not a peripheral sector contributing at the margins of our economy. They are serious business. Growing at a significantly faster rate - 2% faster - than the UK economy as a whole. A growing industry within which Wales has a significant presence - particularly in TV.
But I want to stress that our support for the Creative Industries does not start and end with the landmark Strategy I am launching today.
As such creating an environment where high skilled, knowledge-driven, innovative sectors like the Creative Industries can succeed is at the very centre of our approach. And because the Creative Industries are by definition innovative industries they are key to the development of the Dragon Economy.

The culture of innovation - the application of new ideas and fresh thinking that are so much a part of Creative Industries - is what I am determined to develop and promote in creating a Wales that is dynamic and innovative. I am pleased to see the Ofcom review of public service broadcasting and was delighted to hear the radical views on the future of broadcasting in Wales expressed by Ed Richards, a senior Executive of Ofcom, when he addressed a conference on the future of broadcasting in Cardiff last Friday. I also agree with Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State at DCMS, when she said that she regards the BBC licence fee as a “venture capital fund for the creative industries.”
Promoting creativity and innovation in every part of our economy is central to that. In the modern knowledge economy we are building, we need creativity, we need innovation, in every part of our society. And it applies equally to the public sector and government as much as it does the private sector. We in government need to be innovative in our thinking, our policies and in our delivery of our innovation support services.

That is why we announced the merger of ASPBs such as the WDA and ELWa with the Assembly Government earlier this year. Because we need to ensure that the services we provide for business here in Wales are commercially focussed and responsive to the needs of the private sector, and not second guess the private sector - or even worse compete with it.
I believe this Creative Industries strategy reflects that commitment to public sector innovation as well as to growing a sector with huge potential for wealth and employment creation and why I am proud to launch it today.