creative industries under the shadow of traditional economic laws; Opportunity to develop or repeat the decline?

Isfahan- The activists of creative industries in Manvin Tax Isfahan, criticizing the inefficient indicators of evaluation, institutional fragmentation and financing obstacles, considered the amendment of laws and stabilization of government support necessary for the development of this field.

Ambassador Arjan of the Provinces Group - Korosh Dibaj: Creative industries in today's economy are not limited to the production of cultural works, computer games, animation or artistic products; These industries are formed based on intellectual property, idea, narrative, content and commercialization ability of creativity and can provide a new path for economic value creation, employment of youth and women and development of less privileged areas. However, taking advantage of these capacities requires policies appropriate to the nature of these industries; A policy that establishes a link between cultural production, market development, investment and business continuity.

The main challenge becomes apparent when creative businesses face regulations, evaluation indicators and support mechanisms designed for traditional industries. In such a situation, the increase in the number of products does not necessarily mean economic growth, supporting primary production regardless of market development and the continuity of product activity can reduce the effectiveness of investment, and the dispersion of responsibilities among different institutions also complicates the access of activists to financial resources and specialized support. From this point of view, the future of creative industries depends on amending the laws, determining clear responsibilities, convergence of decision-making institutions and accepting these industries as one of the driving areas of the country's economy.

These issues become more important in a situation where the limitation of natural resources, economic pressures and the high capacity of creative human resources of the country have highlighted the need to review the development model. Despite this, the activists of creative industries warn against the instability of support following the change of managers, the lack of proper investment mechanisms and the dominance of quantitative indicators over the real measures of business growth. In the same framework, the Manvin Tax meeting was held under the title of reviewing the policy challenges of creative industries, by the efforts of the Presidential Vice President for Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, on the sidelines of the Manvin Creative Industries National Event in Isfahan and managed by Ahmed Attarzadeh, the head of the Internet Business Association, and Hossein Neiri, the head of the Venture Capital Association of the country, Sadegh Pejman, an expert and activist in the field of creative industries, Abdul Hossein Bahrami, the head of the Manvin National Creative Industries Event and the head of the Strategic Center of the Economic Development Headquarters. Daneshbanian of the Scientific Vice President, and Mohammad Haji Mirzaei, the CEO of the National Foundation of Computer Games, explained their views on the obstacles and requirements for the development of this field.

Creative industries should become one of the five driving areas of the country's economy

Hossein Neiri, the head of the country's Venture Investment Association, emphasized the necessity of turning the current convergence between activists and managers of creative industries into a sustainable trend in the country's policy-making, and stated: To be honest, I don't see the issue as that today's attention to creative industries is simply the result of a natural process; I feel that fate has brought a number of interested, active and concerned people together at a historical moment and this issue has been noticed.

Neary added: "If these people leave, the light of creative industries may dim again and turn off." Without exaggeration, part of what we are witnessing in this field today is the result of the efforts of people who have followed the concern of creative industries in various responsibilities.

Referring to the role of Abdul Hossein Bahrami in the scientific vice president, the head of the country's venture capital association said: I had criticisms about the performance of the headquarters of the development of cultural technologies and creative industries in the past, and I still do, but Mr. Bahrami worked hard to raise the flag of creative industries in the scientific vice president, and I believe that an important part of Manvin's formation is the result of these pursuits.

Neiri continued: Mohammad Haji Mirzaei has taken over the responsibility in the National Foundation of Computer Games after the events that happened in this area. He comes from the body of the game industry and active companies in this sector, he knows the concerns of this field and enjoys the trust of the activists. I have witnessed in the meetings that the activists of this field refer to him to pursue their issues.

Referring to the activities of Sadegh Pejman in the Institute of Culture and Art Development, he said: The definition of the mission in this collection and placing the concern of creative industries at the center of its activities, in my opinion, is not only caused by an administrative mission, but is rooted in his personal concern. Today, we are witnessing the actions that are being taken in this field.

Emphasizing the necessity of expanding cooperation between the responsible groups in the creative industries, Neiri said: If this group can create convergence and events like Manvin become a platform for the participation of influential people, policymakers and legislators, we can hope that specific budgets for creative industries, special government missions and the attention of the president and the government delegation will be formed from this cooperation.

The head of the country's Venture Investment Association added: "If we cannot create the necessary convergence in the government and governance and do not always consider creative industries as one of the five driving areas of the country's economy, after the end of the term of office of the current managers, we will probably face the decline of this area again." This concern becomes more serious when new technologies, especially artificial intelligence and augmented reality, are merging with traditional areas of creative industries, and the opportunities ahead may no longer be easily compensated.

Referring to the capacity of the private sector to produce creative works, Neiri said: I hope for the future of the country's creative industries. Not only because of the performance of the officials, but because of the capabilities we have seen in the private sector. During the war, examples of creative productions, including Lego animations and animes, were shown, which were the result of the efforts of private collections. Some of these collections have been formed without extensive support, relying on their own motivation and strength and have produced significant works.

Criticizing the difference in the patronage of different industries, he clarified: one of the country's major automobile companies produces more than two hundred thousand monthly losses; A figure that can be enough to support the animation and computer games industry for a year. Despite this, we support the automobile industry for various reasons, but the question is why creative industries should not be an industry that the government is willing to pay for and, in return, get its economic and cultural results?

The change of managers should not stop the development of creative industries

Sadegh Pejman, an expert and activist in the field of creative industries, referring to the formation of convergence between a part of government managers and activists in this field, stated: The reality is that the current composition can be compared to a football team, where at some point, capable players are placed next to each other. As a representative of the private sector, I see this convergence in the government body and among policy makers, but I am still concerned about the change of managers with the change of governments.

Pejman expressed gratitude to Ahmed Attarzadeh, the panel director, Abdul Hossein Bahrami and Mohammad Haji Mirzaei, and considered the presence of officials and activists in this meeting as an opportunity to pursue common issues and added: In my opinion, in the field of economic development of the country, we are experiencing a paradigm shift from traditional economy to creative economy. This change happened faster in the world and it should be recognized sooner or later in our country.

This creative industry activist continued: The numbers and rates related to the creative economy in the last decade show that the world is moving from relying on natural resources to new resources such as ideas, intellectual property and creativity. In the past decades, the basis of the country's development was mostly on the industrial economy, and investments were mainly concentrated in these sectors; But with the reduction of natural resources and the limitation of physical resources, it is necessary to take this change in the development pattern seriously.

Pointing to Iran's advantages in cultural and content areas, Pejman said: the country should direct its development path towards areas that have significant advantages at the international level. Today's world creates added value from meaning, content, narrative, story and intellectual property, and Iran also has great capacities in these areas that can be the basis for the formation of new businesses.

Emphasizing the necessity of reforming the governance mechanisms, he said: We must try to provide new mechanisms in the governance system, the private sector, and laws in order to release the country's capacities in this area. The statistics and figures obtained from Iran's economy in the field of culture, content and meaning show the depth of these capacities and opportunities facing the country.

Pejman added: I hope that the convergence between different ministries, the scientific vice president, the Islamic Council and other influential departments will lead to a change in the direction of development and a new railway will be formed so that the capacities of this ecosystem can be used in the best way.

In describing the institutional barriers of this sector, this expert in the field of creative industries said: One of the basic issues is institutional interference. We must move towards the formation of a relatively centralized and independent trustee who can follow up the issues of this field in a strategic manner. Some problems of creative industries, including the issue of intellectual property, have remained unsolved during recent decades.

Pejman considered intellectual property as the starting point of the economy of culture and creative economy and continued: despite the efforts made, this issue has not yet reached the desired result. In the following, it should be explained about the actions taken by the Institute for the Development of Culture and Art, on behalf of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, to identify and follow up on these issues, the implemented plans and the upcoming actions.

Project-oriented support should give way to the development of the value chain of creative industries

Abdul Hossein Bahrami, the head of the Manvin National Creative Industries event and the head of the strategic center of the knowledge-based economy development headquarters of the scientific vice president, emphasized the place of creative industries in the national economy and stated: The development of the creative economy in the country is no longer just a priority, but has become a necessity. In the vice president's office for science, technology and knowledge-based economy, including with the support of Hossein Afshin, we believe in this field and consider it one of the main capacities of the national economy in the conditions of sanctions, economic pressures and facing various impulses.

Bahrami added: "The country has suitable infrastructure for the development of creative economy and can activate these capacities more quickly." Deprived, remote and less developed areas can also play a role in this process. Also, the presence of young people and women in this sector is particularly important; Because these two groups can play an effective role in forming new economic flows and achieving high development goals.

The head of Manvin National Creative Industries event stated: We should not consider Manvin as just an event. The purpose of the support of the scientific vice-chancellor and Mr. Afshin himself has been to be able to form the value chain of creative industries and move away from the view based on project-oriented support, cross-sectional support and support of a specific product.

He continued: When we make the value chain the basis of support, along with product development, we also pay attention to commercialization, development of the domestic market, export market, and required infrastructure. Support for animation studios and computer game activists should also be seen in the same framework. In such a model, support is not limited to a single product or stage of activity, but covers different parts of the value chain.

Referring to the role of activists in this field in the formation of Manvin, Bahrami said: "During the recent years, especially in the last decade, various people have tried to develop creative industries, and today's event is also the result of the activities of these activists." Holding Manvin with this level of participation is the result of the efforts of public and private sector stakeholders. Although the Vice President of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy was the organizer of the event, an important part of the activities, coordination and implementation was done with the participation of government agencies and private sector activists.

The head of the strategic center of the knowledge-based economy development headquarters of the scientific vice president, emphasizing the need to draw the attention of the country's high decision-making levels to creative industries, said: We can present the creative economy as one of the main advantages of the national economy when this issue becomes a concern of the country's top officials. In the current situation, it is necessary to pay special attention to the capacity of the youth, to provide the opportunity to use their power in the national economy.

Referring to the policies of the 14th government, Bahrami said: justice-oriented and paying attention to the role of youth and women are among the axes that can be linked with the development of creative industries. It is possible to develop these industries in different parts of the country and this feature can help expand economic opportunities and participation of different social groups.

Referring to the necessity of continued support, he added: We are ready to make this path more stable with the cooperation of activists and various institutions. The capacity of creative industries does not belong to a specific set or device, and for its development, the power of all related sectors should be used. The measures taken in the Institute for the Development of Culture and Art to change the approach and create support mechanisms can also be promising in this direction.

Bahrami further considered the synergy of public and private resources as one of the approaches of the Scientific Vice-Chancellor for the development of creative industries and stated: During the period of the 14th government and with the presence of Mr. Afshin, the approach of the Scientific Vice-Chancellor is to use its resources with the participation of other stakeholders in the public and private sector. We have to accept that we are facing limited resources and we cannot rely on the resources of one group to solve big problems and challenges.

The head of the strategic center of the knowledge-based economy development headquarters of the scientific vice president continued: One of the programs that we have put on the agenda in the last year is the implementation of joint projects with the National Computer Games Foundation, the National Animation Foundation and active groups in the field of culture and art.

Referring to the financial performance of this complex, Bahrami said: In the steering center of the knowledge-based economy development headquarters, one of which is dedicated to creative industries and soft technologies, we supported technological and innovative projects with about 1,300 billion tomans last year. On the other hand, the private sector and other related networks contributed about 200 billion tomans. Our effort has been to leverage the resources of the deputy and use them in the value chain by increasing the quality and effectiveness of the support.

Emphasizing the readiness to develop joint cooperation, he added: We are ready to sit down with different departments and define joint projects. One of the successful examples of this approach has been the collaboration with the National Computer Games Foundation in the last year, which has had significant results. The presence of companies active in the field of computer games in the Manvin event is also a result of cooperation and joint projects done in the past.

The index of increase in the number of games is not the right measure to evaluate the industry

Mohammad Haji Mirzaei, CEO of the National Computer Games Foundation, pointed to the need to strengthen communication between different parts of the game industry and stated: One of the measures we follow in the foundation is to pay attention to parts of this industry that have been less seen so far; Including professional gamers, streamers and groups whose role is more in the form of monitoring or warning about crossing red lines.

Haji Mirzaei added: Our effort is to connect game makers, game media, publishers, streamers and professional gamers. These groups sometimes do not even meet and communicate directly with each other and do not use each other's capacities. While the country has a significant number of professional gamers and part of the game production orders are entrusted to foreign companies, strengthening the relationship between game makers and other actors can help the growth of this industry.

The CEO of the National Foundation of Computer Games continued: Part of our work is to make these connections more active and to remove the legal obstacles facing the activists. The experience of working with the scientific vice-chancellor and Mr. Bahrami in our own festival has also been one of the successful examples of this approach. In that experience, one group had an investment mechanism and the other group was looking to support a number of teams. Working together, we extracted indicators, selected teams, and stacked resources.

He stated: The result of this cooperation was that more resources were allocated to the selected teams and the game makers realized that different collections can work together. This experience showed that it is possible to use the service capacity and support of various institutions, including the Ministry of Communications, while maintaining the independence and expertise of each group.