Innovative Macao

Creative Industries Centre
Set Up in Macao

Macao’s first creative industries centre was officially opened by Chief Executive Edmund Ho Hau Wah on August 28, 2003.

The Centre for Creative Industries (CCI) is an initiative of the Institute of European Studies of Macao, which is a non-profit tertiary education institution subsidised by a number of public entities in Macao, including the Macao Trade and Investment Promotion Institute (IPIM).

Speaking at the opening ceremony, CCI President Jose Luis de Sales Marques, said that Macao, with all its cultural richness and diversity, offered creative industries great development potential. However, he admitted that due to Macao’s relatively small domestic market, its creative industries needed to open up markets elsewhere, namely in Mainland China.

Mr. Marques also said the CCI was meant to function as a showcase for what Macao is able to do, and to promote the idea of created in Macao. The CCI mainly aims at contributing through the promotion of creative industries to the sustainable development of Macao. The CCI is also tasked with holding regular workshops to stimulate creativity and innovation and to improve the overall quality and competitiveness of local creation, according to Mr. Marques, who also chairs the Institute of European Studies of Macao.

The centre, which is strategically located on the ground-floor of the Macao Cultural Centre in the Outer Harbour, also intends to promote Macao’s creativity and innovation throughout the world, namely through contacts with likeminded entities elsewhere, as well as through its own Internet website, which introduces Macao’s creative industry enterprises and individuals to anyone interested in creative products made in Macao.

CCI Runs its Own Website

Currently, the CCI’s website (http://www.creativemacau.org.mo) lists around 70 companies and individuals working in the creative industry sector. The centre comprises an attractive, 160-square metre showroom for the display and sale of products created in Macao, covering a wide range of creative areas, such as advertising, architecture, crafts design, film and video, designer fashion, music, publishing, performing arts, software and computer development, and visual arts.

In a special message marking the opening of the centre, Mr. Marques stressed that the CCI was dedicated to the whole creative community based in Macao, adding that the CCI wishes to play an important role by projecting Macao’s creative talents and their work in an international context.

Mr. Marques also said that in its first phase of activities, the CCI would focus on professional training and the promotion of dialogue among professionals of Macao’s creative industries, adding the centre was also planned to function as a showcase for what Macao was able to achieve in the field of creative industries.

At a seminar on Development Strategies of Local Cultural Industries in Asia and Europe, which was held in Macao in December 2002, Mr. Marques said the CCI was also meant to function as an umbrella for the creative community in Macao, and as a bridge to help smooth the gap between creation, production and distribution.

This Centre will try to be useful in both extremes of the production and distribution cycle by providing in the first stage of its existence the creative community with training programmes, either in a particular skill or in management techniques, and by helping in the distribution process with the dissemination of information and networking, Mr. Marques said at the seminar.

As a complement to these activities, we will also proceed with the identification and research of creative industries in Macao and study their relationships with other sectors of the economy, with a special emphasis on tourism and the manufacturing of textiles and garments, Mr. Marques said, adding he hoped that later on the CCI would also be able to provide additional services, such as consultancy and marketing, merchandising and financing for its participants.

Creating better, Producing better, Distributing more

According to the CCI’s project co-ordinator, Ms. Lucia Lemos, the Centre defines creative industries as those that have their origin in creativity, skill and talent and that have a potential for wealth and job creation through the generating and exploitation of the intellectual property.

Based in the idea that creative activities are to be seen as an industry, there are three stages to be considered: Creation, production and distribution. The CCI’s declared aim is trying to smooth out the gaps between those three stages. The CCI is also committed to trying to create better, produce better, distribute more, and to distribute creative products to a larger variety of markets.

For the first phase of its activities, the Centre has drawn up a six-point activities plan for all its members:

1. Launching skill-oriented training programmes to stimulate creativity and innovation and improve the overall quality and competitiveness of local creation;
2. Arranging special courses that are particularly aimed at small-scale operations, based on the fact that most creative industries in Macao are small-scale businesses. The courses’ main aim is to improve their participants’ understanding of financial, marketing and production-related topics;
3. Introducing the creative activities of each individual or corporate member of the CCI on its website
4. Facilitating access to a world-wide network of creative and cultural industries centres and Macao’s Euro-Info Centre that maintains a specialised network of trade and investment information dedicated to the promotion of business exchanges between Asia and Europe;
5. Promoting Macao’s creativity and innovation industries worldwide;
6. Providing creative industry professionals with exhibition space at its newly opened premises, the Creative Industries Showcase. Creative products on display at the centre for sale require prior approval by the CCI, which deducts 15 per cent from the retail price as a service fee for each product sold.

CCI takes part in MIF

The CCI will have its own stand at the 8th Macao International Trade and Investment Fair (MIF) at the Macao Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre on October 23-26, 2003. CCI’s stand will present creative works of its participants and hold a portfolio presentation session to offer investors an opportunity to meet local talents. The MIF will also include a special Creative Industries Day on October 25.

Creative Industry Creates Economic-related Value

As in all developed countries and regions, the creative industry sector will also in Macao gradually grow into an important contributor to its gross domestic product. The creative industry creates economic-related value, such as copy rights, Mr. Marques told Macao Image, adding that even the commercial performance of Shaolin kungfu or traditional Chinese lion dance are part of the creative industry sector. The creative industry has also been called cultural industry, and in this respect Macao has a very strong tradition, based on its very special cultural background as a meeting place between East and West for over 400 years, Mr. Marques said, adding that creative industries offered many business opportunities to places like Macao that have a strong cultural identity.

Mr. Marques also said the CCI would try its best to telp putting Macao on the world map in terms of its great creative potential. He is confident that Macao’s creative industries will benefit from ample growth opportunities during the Special Administrative Region’s ongoing transformation into an international gaming, entertainment and tourism destination, business services platform and logistics hub in the Pearl River Delta super-development zone.

The CCI at the Macao Cultural Centre is open daily from 3 pm to 10 pm, except Mondays.

Contact
Project Co-ordinator: Lucia Lemos,
Assistant Project Co-ordinator: Selina Lee
Operations Assistant: Antonio Ho
Email: cci@creativemacau.org.mo.
Address: Avenida Xian Xing Hai, Macao Cultural Centre,Macao
Tel.: (853) 753282, fax (853) 753236