The final event of the project “Development of cultural and creative industries as part of a sustainable economic sector in Montenegro” was held on January 31, 2020, at the Ministry of Culture. The project was implemented by the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (IPER) in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture and with the support of the UNESCO International Fund for Cultural Diversity.
Through this project, the fields of cultural and creative industries have been identified for the first time through the mapping process. Based on international best practice, 11 sectors, 40 industries and 57 occupations belonging to the cultural and creative industries have been identified. For the first time, their contribution to the economic growth and development of Montenegro has been calculated, saying that: the gross added value created by the cultural and creative industries in Montenegro tends to grow – from 2014 to 2018, it increased from 38.2 to 58.5 million Euros, accounting for an average of 1.5% of total GVA. During this period, the number of employees increased as well, reaching 7,252 at the end of 2018, up 28% from the number of employees in the cultural and creative industries at the end of 2014.
Appreciating the project’s results as very successful and useful for future activities in the field of public policy of the creative industries, State Secretary at the Ministry of Culture Drazen Blazic stressed that the creative and cultural industries sector in Montenegro should be a strong generator of growth and an abundant resource for economic development.
“We need to put the creative potential of our artists in the function of economic development, and the Ministry of Culture will be a reliable partner in this direction. We will be committed to working to create the conditions to valorize all the resources of the actors in this field, and some of them are already recognized not at the local and national, but also at the global level,”Blazic said.
Explaining mechanisms to support actors in the creative sector, he emphasized that the Ministry of Culture’s priority is to support actors through non-repayable financial instruments and through the provision of “hard” infrastructure.
The director of the Institute for Entrepreneurship and Economic Development (IPER) Dragana Radevic said that the project “Development of cultural and creative industries as part of a sustainable economic sector in Montenegro” was a big challenge from the beginning.
“The fact that it received the attention of the UNESCO Fund for Cultural Diversity and the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, which supported the project in December 2017 in Paris, has made us committed to a maximum commitment and professional approach. Support from the UNESCO Fund for Cultural Diversity meant not only that the project was well conceived, but also that the development of cultural and creative industries in Montenegro was important,”said Radevic.
Based on previously conducted research, within this project, trainings were organized for the development of the missing entrepreneurial skills, which were attended by established creatives, as well as those on the way to turn their hobby into something more.
Nine two-day trainings on topics of greatest interest (how to create a brand, promotion on social networks, customer psychology, public relations, etc.) were carried out, attended by 210 participants mainly from the private sector but also from public institutions.