Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — As Uzbekistan hosts the Fourth Edition of World Conference of Creative Economy (WCCE-2024) under the pivotal visionary theme ‘Inclusively Creative: A Shifted Reality’, global conversations on the transformative potential of culture get further consolidated and bolstered.

More than 2,000 participants from over 80 countries have gathered in this event. Both India and Uzbekistan that boast of young population, diverse cultural heritage and civilizational ethos stand to benefit by having more exchanges on this issue. Fortunately, the power of culture is getting increasingly recognised by the global community. The outcome document of Culture Working Group under India’s successful G20 Presidency, and the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration 2023, resoundingly endorsed the positioning of culture as a standalone goal in the post 2030 development agenda.

The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration 2023 recognized the significant potential of creative economy as an enabler and driver of economic growth and its fundamental role in crafting a resilient, inclusive, and diverse social fabric. Indian’s role in promoting creative economy is also demonstrated by the Jodhpur Consensus of 2005, outcome of the Senior Experts Symposium on Asia-Pacific Creative Communities held in India nearly two decades ago.

This consensus laid the groundwork for recognizing cultural industries as key drivers of economic growth and poverty alleviation, affirming that cultural diversity is a vital part of humanity and must be preserved and promoted. It also emphasized the importance of fostering environments that respect freedom of expression and collective creativity, while highlighting the need for community involvement in policy formulation and decision-making processes. Notably, the Jodhpur Consensus directly influenced UNESCO’s 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions later that year. The Fourth Edition of WCCE is therefore very significant as it reaffirms the potential of creative economy in contributing towards inclusive and sustainable economic growth and empowering communities particularly in the developing countries.  In both our countries, culture is expected to play a pivotal role in shaping our development trajectories. To harness the transformative power of human creativity and build a future that is powered by ideas, traditions, and innovations, India today has policy ecosystem that is geared up to promote investments in the creative economy sector, protect the interests of creative professionals and drive creative exports from India. At the 46th UNESCO World Heritage Committee meeting in New Delhi this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi rallied behind the creative sector by declaring that the cultural and creative industries are all set to become a major factor in global growth.

India advocates for alignment of conceptual frameworks and data collection methodologies to measure the sector’s economic weight in order to support policies for fair remuneration and social protection for cultural professionals to promote decent work. Today we are looking at a crucial opportunity to engage with other Nations and Organizations like UNESCO and UNCTAD to develop comparable and cohesive frameworks for exchange of best practices pertaining to systematic collection of cultural data. There is also a need to support culture-based climate action. India’s economy is rooted in circular economy and predominantly based on sustainable practices. Our handmade products use locally sourced naturally organic materials compatible with environmental sustainability and principles of low-carbon economy. Mission LiFE (lifestyle for the Environment), announced  during COP26 in 2021, is predicated on climate-friendly cultural norms, beliefts and daily household practices of different cultures worldwide to place individual behaviors at the heart of global climate action narrative. Another key theme is the integration of digital technologies in the Cultural domain that has fundamentally transformed our engagement with culture, placing it at the heart of digital eco system. This significant shift democratizes culture and promotes multilingualism, making diverse cultural expressions accessible in various languages to broad swathes of populations across the world. We need combined efforts and convening power of UNITAR/UNOSAT and UNESCO to affect collaboration among International Organisations, Universities, Technology Firms and Communities – thereby also contributing to intercultural understanding, heritage conservation and upskilling cultural practitioners in the digital age. Both India and Uzbekistan have young population. This aspirational generation of youth is harnessing creativity and technology to drive innovation, increasingly adopting technology and Artificial Intelligence to enhance their reach and impact. Recently, India celebrated their talent by instituting National Creator Awards with the theme “Create on India and Create for the World”. To safeguard India’s intellectual property and protect the interests of the creators, India’s National Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Policy, 2016, focuses on promoting fair use, innovation, and entrepreneurship while protecting traditional knowledge and cultural expressions.

For countries like India and Uzbekistan that possess rich history of cultural ethos and heritage, supporting creative industries for economic growth, global sustainability, and protection of intellectual property rights will remain important agenda items. As the world navigates complex global challenges invocation of the power of culture in promoting peace and intercultural understanding shall continue to be the enduring echo of the “Cultural Unites All” campaign of the Culture Working Group under India’s G20 Presidency. It is said that there is nothing more powerful than the idea whose time has come. Uzbekistan deserves all kudos for hosting the conference at an opportune time. The productive outcomes of this edition of WCCE shall pave the way for future ready global policies that promote & sustain creativity, commerce and collaboration in today’s digital world. Needless to say, that this is the right time to come together and deliberate on how tradition and technology, imagination and innovation can lead to a cleaner, greener and a more prosperous future for all.

Smita Pant, Ambassador of India, Tashkent

Lily Pandeya, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India

Shah Faesal, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Culture, Government of India