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Creativity, Innovation, and Development

By Yusuf Mansur

Creativity and Culture for Development

Med Culture 1st Regional Conference

Casablanca, 27 April 2015

Abstract

Arab countries suffer significant challenges, from the scarcity of resources

(other than hydrocarbon) to small unstable markets and shifting borders.

The region also endures low development scores; even the rich countries

are more rich than developed. To further complicate the socioeconomic

landscape, the percentage of youth in the population is among the

highest in the world, so is youth unemployment. This paper benchmarks

the ranking of Arab countries in the global indices, investigates the

relationships between creativity, innovation and development, and

provides practical interventions and policy advice for improving creativity

and innovation to better develop the Southern Mediterranean.

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INTRODUCTION

Before speaking of creativity and innovation and their relation to development, it

is important to benchmark the region to describe what we are dealing with.

Empirical facts paint a portrait of fragmented, uncooperative, undeveloped and

poor economies.

The Arab region is marred by artificial, recently made, and currently being

redefined borders. It suffers from all types of restrictions, varying intra-country

levels of strife, rich countries neighboring poor ones, scarce water that is

originating, in most cases, from outside the country, different and at times

opposing neighboring political systems, a variety of autocracies, small

geographic areas next to large ones, large percentage of arid lands,

concentrations of people in small parts of the countries, etc. Outside the

hydrocarbon resources of which some countries are blessed or cursed, there is

little in terms of the traditional economic endowments.

Furthermore, cooperation in terms of trade in goods among the Arab countries is

very low. Trade in goods among Arab states is 8.6% of their total trade, and this

would fall drastically if hydrocarbon trade was removed1. According to the Inter-

Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation (IAIGC)Inter-Arab investment in 2010

was a mere $5.3 billion. This is a mere fraction of Arab investment in Europe, the

US and East Asia.

Most workers from the Arab labor-exporting nations find it easier to travel

northwards to the developed economies of the West, rather than to neighboring

Arab countries. The whole Arab region remains below its potential in terms of

development; even the “wealthy” Arab states are more rich than developed.

Moreover, it has the highest rates in the world of youth and youth

unemployment.

Add to all this the Arab Renaissance whereby youth spearheaded what

emerged as upheavals in varying degrees and forms throughout the region; and

consequent conflicts that have drawn in stakeholders from within and outside

the region.

How does one create development in such small underdeveloped economies?

Definitely not through traditional means and products. Indeed, in the digital age,

one has to and is enabled to think outside the box. Implementing solutions also

1 Saidi, N. “Time to Break Down Barriers to Intra-Arab Trade.” Financial Times, June 29, 2014.http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/46cff9e2-f857-11e3-a333-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3Xwl1MWPH

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requires some very non-traditional approaches. One way is to focus on services

instead of goods. Service trade among Arab countries and with the world has

been growing at a faster rate than trade in goods. Because value added is the

essence and source of competitive advantage, the topic of this paper is how to

utilize creativity and innovation to enhance services and create development in

the Arab world.

Because culture is “the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs,

values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial

relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions

acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual

and group striving,” and “the systems of knowledge shared by a relatively large

group of people.” Is vital that culture be benchmarked and utilized as a starting

point for enhancing the role for creativity and innovation to achieve

development2. In fact, culture, innovation and opportunity-driven

entrepreneurship are the three poles of a future-oriented society.

The untapped potential of creativity, and innovation and culture will be explored

during the two days of the Conference. This represents an opportunity to initiate

new models and new approaches compatible with the context(s) in

Mediterranean Partner countries.

Let’s start first by describing the rankings of the Arab Med Countries in terms of

the Doing Business Report of the IFC and the Global Competitiveness Index of

the World Economic Forum. This is followed by defining the concepts: creativity,

innovation, and development. Although they are often used, it is useful to clarify

what is meant by each one of them and explore from there the linkages that

exist in order to begin to construct our paradigm. This is followed by

recommendations on how to encourage creativity and innovation.

DOING BUSINESS AND COMPETITIVENESS

It is vital, and before describing policies and interventions to encourage

creativity and innovation to take stock of the ranking of Arab Med Countries in

the Global Competitiveness Index and the Doing Business Report.

DOING BUSINESS REPORT

2 https://www.tamu.edu/faculty/choudhury/culture.html

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The figure below provides the rankings of Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco,

Egypt, Algeria and Syria in the Doing Business Report during 2009-2015.

Source: Doing Business Report, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

Tunisia, the best performer traditionally among the Arab Med countries in the

Doing Business Report has seen its ranking worsen in recent years as a result of

the turmoil of the Arab Renaissance. Morocco has clearly been improving

ranking year-on-year; however, the clear leader in terms of Doing Business

remains Tunisia .

GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS REPORT

The figure below provides the rankings of Jordan, Lebanon, Tunisia, Morocco,

Egypt, Algeria and Syria in the Global Competitiveness Report (GCR) during

2009-2015. Morocco is showing recent improvements according to the GCR. The

clear leader in terms of ranking is Jordan.

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Source: Global Competitiveness Report, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.

CREATIVITY

Creativity is the use of ideas to produce new ideas, which makes it unlike the

traditional economic resources, limitless. It begins in the mind, a mental

phenomenon, a conception of what might be produced before actual

production starts.3

Creativity must be communicated; thus, it is not only an act of the initiator or

sender but also of the receiver. It must be appreciated or it would be

squandered. The human experience of one that is encapsulated in a work of art

must be appreciated by the human experience of another for creativity to

flourish. Hence, creativity must be communicated, which underscores the

importance of the digital age of our times in the creation of creative works4.

Given that all humans are creative, and are busy transmitting and receiving

creative works, creativity cannot be exclusive to the privileged elites of a nation,

where there is work, there should be creativity. But work and the skill employed or

enhanced through creativity to conduct the work is not the only significance of

creativity, it is important in the overall development of human capabilities, and

3Levine, David P. 1999. “Creativity and Change: On the Psychodynamics of Modernity.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 43, no. 2 (October): 225-244, page 66. 4Williams, Raymond. 1961. The Long Revolution (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books).

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the freedom and autonomy in the modern market economy, which makes the

autonomous self the center of initiatives5.

CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

According to the UN, creative industries are at the crossroads of the artisan,

services and industrial sectors, and a dynamic source for growing world trade,

especially in developed countries6. They are industrial-scale productions

combined with a significant cultural content; mass-produced goods and services

with sufficient artistic content to be considered creative.

Creative industries include: performing arts, arts market, crafts, design, fashion,

film, videos, the music industry, publishing, software, toys and games, cultural

tourism, television and radio, advertising and architecture. They are

supply/value-added chains of creation, production, and distribution of goods

and services that utilize creativity and intellectual capital as primary inputs. In a

study of four Arab countries7, the contribution of creative industries to GDP in

2005 was: Lebanon 1.6 per cent, Jordan 0.7 per cent, Tunisia 0.6 per cent and

Morocco 0.5 per cent. The contribution of the music recording industry to the

GDP seems highest in Lebanon, followed by Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt.

In terms of copyright industries, software is the most important in Egypt and

Jordan; in Lebanon and Tunisia it comes second in terms of importance and it is

least important in Morocco. Note that In Jordan, the copyright industries employ

3.4% of the work force --One JD of copyright output directly generates JD30 of

output in the economy8. In most Arab countries, the film industry contributes less

than 0.1 per cent of the GDP, with the highest contribution in Lebanon, followed

by Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

The sector has proved to be resilient: it continued to perform well during the

recent global recession: 4.3% growth per annum since the global recession

began in 20089. This is an important fact given the current and potential

5Levine, David P. 1999. “Creativity and Change: On the Psychodynamics ofModernity.” American Behavioral Scientist, vol. 43, no. 2 (October): 225-244, page 236. 6UNCTAD, Creative Economy Report 2010, http://unctad.org/en/Docs/ditctab20103_en.pdf 7Najib Harabi. “Knowledge Intensive Industries: Four Case Studies of Creative Industries in Arab Countries,” Paper prepared for Learning Event on Developing Knowledge Economy Strategies to Improve Competitiveness in the MENA Region, May 17-21 2009 http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/library/251761/day3creative%20Industry%20WB_version%201.pdf

8 WIPO 2012, Economic Contribution of the Copyright-Based Industries in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

9 The Economic Impact of the Creative Industries in the Americas, a report prepared by Oxford Economics for the British Council, IDB, OAS.

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instabilities in the region. In the context of continued instability in the region,

culture could become an important lever of development, especially among

youth. Given the high percentage of youth in the Southern Med, creative

industries, which tend to have a higher percentage than other sectors in youth

employment, become even more important10.

INNOVATION

Innovation is the application of better solutions that meet new requirements in

expected or existing market needs11.Simply put, while an invention is a discovery,

an innovation is the application of the invention to produce goods and services.

Innovation is generally considered as a practice that brings into implementation

new ideas to positively impact society. Note that it is difficult for innovation to

happen in societies where creativity is not promoted or encouraged--through

education, exchanges, exposure to diverse influences, etc.

Creativity can lead to innovation only when its value is favourably perceived,

and when “creative talents are better organised through business and

supported by institutions, and where competition encourages and […] rewards

creativity and entrepreneurship.”12 Hence the need to address issues such as

education, training, and cultural policies, especially if a nation desires to create

more jobs for its youth.

Joseph Schumpeter first introduced innovation into economics in 194213, where

he underscored that industries must innovate with better or more effective

processes and products in a process of “creative destruction”. It is widely

accepted that innovations in technology and management are necessary to

improve quality or reduce the cost of production and consequently

price14.Indeed, innovation has been recognized as a tool in the fight against

poverty by major development bodies such as DFID (Global Innovation Fund),

the Gates Foundation and USAID.

According to the New Growth Theory, also known as the Endogenous Growth

Theory, investment in human capital, innovation, and knowledge are principal

10 The Economic Impact of the Creative Industries in the Americas, by Oxford Economics for the British Council, IDB and Organisation of American States, p. 4. 11Maranville, S (1992). Entrepreneurship in the Business Curriculum,Journal of Education for Business, Vol. 68 No. 1, pp.27-31. 12 Creative industries for youth: unleashing potential and growth. United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, Vienna, 2013. 13 Schumpeter, J. A. (1943). Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (6th ed.). Routledge. pp. 81–84. 14 Heyne, P., Boettke, P. J., and Prychitko, D. L. (2010). The Economic Way of Thinking. Prentice Hall, 12th ed. Pp. 163, 317–318.

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contributors to economic growth15. Positive externalities and spillover effects in a

knowledge-based economy lead to economic development. Increasing the

incentive to innovate, increases growth. As Paul Hofheinz pointed out, “Any

‘economic growth’ strategy which ignores the all-important strand of promoting,

encouraging and developing innovation is doomed to fail,”16 which is why the

New Growth Theory considers creativity, innovation and knowledge as more

important contributors to growth than physical inputs.

The following is a snapshot of the Arab Med Countries ranking in terms of

innovation.

Source: Global Innovation reports, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.

Note that almost all Arab countries exhibit an upward trend in ranking in terms of

innovation. Morocco and Algeria provide examples of recent improvements.

DEVELOPMENT

Since we are also addressing competitiveness, let’s start with a definition of

development from Harvard Professor, Michael E. Porter in his 1990 book The

Competitive Advantage of Nations. He defined development there as the "long-

term process of building a number of interdependent microeconomic

capabilities and incentives to support more advanced forms of competition."

Therefore, to Porter, development meant long-term competitiveness or

productivity and the spread of clusters. Years later, he wrote, “Where there is an

15Romer, P. M. (1994). "The Origins of Endogenous Growth". The Journal of Economic Perspectives 8 (1): 3–22. 16Paul Hofheinz.“An Innovation Agenda for Europe”. Policy Netwrok - 02 APRIL 2015. http://www.policy-network.net/pno_detail.aspx?ID=4879&title=An-innovation-agenda-for-Europe

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imbalance between economic growth and social progress, political instability

and unrest often arise… Lagging social progress also holds back economic

growth in these and other countries that fail to address human needs, build

social capital, and create opportunity for their citizens. Countries must invest in

social progress, not just economic institutions, to create the proper foundation for

economic growth.”17

The Noble Laureate, Amartya Sen argues that human development is about the

expansion of citizens’ capabilities, “Development consists of the removal of

various types of unfreedoms that leave people with little choice and little

opportunity for exercising their reasoned agency”, and agency here means,

“what a person is free to do and achieve in pursuit of whatever goals or values

he or she regards as important.”18 Hence, to Amartya Sen, to achieve

development we must work on creating healthy well trained people and afford

them the opportunity to employ their talents.

Economic development can be described in terms of objectives and process. In

terms of objectives, the objectives of economic development are: job creation,

job retention, tax base enhancements and quality of life. As a process,

economic development is described as a set of policies that governments

undertake to influence the economic welfare of its people: inflation control, job

creation, sustainable growth rates, enabling services (including education,

training, highways, parks, and medical access), business finance, marketing,

neighborhood development, business retention and expansion, technology

transfer, real estate development and others19. Increasingly, economic

development encompasses the promotion of regional clusters and metropolitan

economies to create competitive advantage.

This is a tall order and one that can only be achieved with freedom guarantees,

properly working institutions that are democratic, accountable and transparent.

Furthermore, such institutions should not be exclusive. As creativity is not

exclusive, proper governance is required to be all inclusive, transparent and

accountable. All elements of society and the components of the culture of the

group and the sub cultures are all sources of wealth for a nation.

17http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/economic-development-social-progress-index-by-michael-porter-

2015-04#5d2JiEJk7FDdou4B.99 18Amartya Sen, Quoted in 2002 AHDR, http://www.arab-hdr.org/publications/other/ahdr/ahdr2002e.pdf 19The International Economic Development Council’s Economic Development Reference Guide, The Power

of Knowledge and Leadership.

http://www.iedconline.org/clientuploads/Downloads/IEDC_ED_Reference_Guide.pdf

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Diversity should be encouraged and accepted. If not properly promoted and

developed by a strong state that is not controlled by a group of elites, this

wealth of material for creative products diminishes or languishes into obscurity.

The systems, if not inclusive, transparent and merit based will end up suffocating

the cultural/creative capital. In other words, one requires a reversal of the role of

the state from being rentier, to one that is merit based.

Indeed, the study of institutions and their role in economic development has

been underscored in the works of Buchanan and Tullock (1965), North and

Thomas (1970), Olson (1982), McNeill (1982) and Macfarlane (2002), Shliefer

(2004), and Shirley (2005), among others20. No longer does one view resources

such as human capital as inputs but as outputs forged by the existence of

enabling political and social intuitions and whether formal and informal

institutions impede or encourage development.

In their well-known book Why Nations Fail, Daron Acemoglu and James A.

Robinson present an interesting example of the role played by creative freedoms

in long-term economic and political development. Previous to the spread of

printing presses, books had been expensive and time-consuming to produce,

which hindered the development of greater creative potential. In 1439, the

invention of the Gutenberg Press, ushered the printing revolution (the number of

printed books rose from under 10 million in the 15th century to almost one billion in

the 18th century21), which played a crucial role in the Renaissance and enabled

Europe and its economies to become knowledge-based.

While printing technology was already spreading across Europe in the late 1400s,

it was not until 1727 that the first printing press opened in Istanbul, and even then

printing was subject to harsh censorship. In the end, the Ottoman Empire paid

the price for its elitist restrictive policy. In the early 1800s only 2 to 3 percent of its

citizens were able to read, whereas 60 percent of English males and 40 percent

of English females were literate. Well into the mid 19th century, the majority of

books in the Ottoman Empire were hand written. The situation in the region,

20Buchanan, J. M., and Tullock, G. (1965) The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; Shirley, M. M. (2005) “Institutions and Development.” In C. Ménard and M. M. Shirley (eds.) Handbook of New Institutional Economics. Dordrecht: Springer; North, D. C., and Thomas, R. P. (1970) “An Economic Theory of the Growth of the Western World.” Economic History Review 23: 1–17; Shleifer, A. (2004) “Do Institutions Cause Growth?” Journal of Economic Growth 9: 271–303; Macfarlane, A. (2002) The Making of the Modern World: Visions from the West and East. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave. McNeill, W. H. (1982).

21Buringh, Eltjo; van Zanden, Jan Luiten: "Charting the “Rise of the West”: Manuscripts and Printed Books in Europe, A Long-Term Perspective from the Sixth through Eighteenth Centuries", The Journal of Economic History, Vol. 69, No. 2 (2009), pp. 409–445.

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under the rule of the Ottomans, did not chance to benefit from printing until in

Egypt, the first printing press was set up in 1798 by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The following is a presentation of the rankings of Arab countries 2009-2014 in the

Human Development Report.

Source: Human Development reports, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.

ENCOURAGING CREATIVITY

First and foremost the creative industries require freedoms, the freedom to

express one’s self, to protect the expression through enforced copyright and

patent laws, and to benefit from the revenue or income generated from the

creative work at home and abroad. While the freedom is an overall framework

and a necessary first step, the state must undertake several other activities:

1. Coordinate across a wide set of ministries: finance, planning, trade,

industry, local/regional development, labor, domestic and foreign

investment, technology and communication sector (telephone services,

the Internet, broadband, satellite communications, etc.), culture, tourism,

social affairs, and education.

2. Foster an open, dynamic, personal and professional urban environment,

which will attract more creative people, businesses and capital.

3. Enable easy entry, startup (among other procedures make registration

equivalent to licensing, activate one-stop windows, electronic

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government and registration, etc.) and easy exit (introduce bankruptcy

legislation).

4. Dialogue should, as in all policy making involve, involve: public sector,

private sector, and civil society.

5. Education embeds in the citizen a perception of her role, and the value of

that role in society. The starting point in reform is to have educational

systems that encourage creativity. Look at and revise the syllabi in public

schools, creativity is not an elite undertaking but should be a common

practice by the poor as well as the well to do. Think creative schools,

creative spaces, and make creative people.

6. Map the creative industries in your country. Take stock of what you have.

Each nation must study and evaluate the supply chain of the creative

industry it wishes to promote. In many cases, the state may indirectly and

unknowingly through existing intuitions that claim to be in support of a

creative industry may be thwarting such an effort because it has no

resources and thus become another regulator instead of a promoter.

Under such a scenario seek other countries in the region, which is

commonly being done nowadays or work as if the government is not

there to help you: work without expecting that initial seedling of support

from the state.

7. Make cities creative by focusing on the arts and cultural activities, the

media and entertainment industries, and the creative business-to business

services. Improve the value chain whenever possible by marketing and

social networking. “Cities have one crucial resource – their people.

Human cleverness, desires, motivations, imagination and creativity are

replacing location, natural resources and market access as urban

resources. The creativity of those who live in and run cities will determine

future success. As cities became large and complex enough to present

problems of urban management so they became laboratories that

developed the solutions – technological, conceptual and social – to the

problems of growth”22.

8. Avoid telling the creative workers what to do, tell them what not to do

and help them, get out of their way anytime you can. Regulations that

can be removed without harming the welfare of a nation should be

removed, use a guillotine to quickly remove obstacles.

9. Most the countries of the region have signed intellectual property rights

protection agreements such as TRIPS and others. However,

implementation is not there. A country that permits the piracy of films will

make it extremely difficult for a film industry to flourish. The creative

22 Landry, C. The Creative City: A Toolkit for Urban Innovators in 2000, London: Earthscan Publications, page XII.

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workers must work with the existing challenges if the state does not

provide them ample protection. A distributor for example that has to live

with this challenge should attempt to price original copies in a way that

permits competition with the counterfeit copy.

10. Avail formal funding sources. Creative industries can be extremely

profitable, and they are not without risk, having funding sources that

understand the nature of creative industries is vital to growing a creative

economy. If funding from traditional sources is not available, one could

attempt crowdfunding. Recently in Jordan, Jo Bedu the makers of

custom made T-shirts managed to raise over US$120000 last year through

crowdfunding23. However, it is best for governments in the region to

create funds for startups and venture capital funds.

11. Promote the development of creative clusters, the more specialized while

still encompassing the related and supporting industries) the greater the

advantage as the value added deepens and so does the competitive

advantage. The convergence of firms involved in music, film, visual arts,

fashion and design in well-defined clusters is essential to survival and

growth of the creative industries. They generate, promote and develop

creative industries and encourage quick positive externalities. There is no

substitute to having flourishing, well connected and functioning clusters.

12. Encourage the establishment of regional creative clusters across

countries, especially where cultural experiences and the arts are similar.

This is simply extending and applying the concept of near sourcing to the

creative industries.

13. Trade in services can be easier than the trade in goods; cooperation is

thus feasible and is almost free of the shipping and logistical obstacles as

well as technical trade barriers. International trade allows the policy

maker another tool, measuring the contribution of creativity to the

economy.

14. Build creative ecologies: creativity depends on a mix of four factors:

diversity, change, learning, and adaptation24. Encourage the growth of

such ecologies in your country even if it means inviting in the brightest

people from outside the country—Dubai does this best.

15. When possible establish techno poles or technical parks, merging

incubator facilities with exhibits and training facilities. This not only

23 Mansur, Y. “Crowdfunding Creativity”. Jordan Times, May 05, 2014.

http://jordantimes.com/share-content/crowdfunding-creativity.html 24 Howkins, J. Creative Ecologies: Where Thinking is a Proper Job Paperback – July 31, 2010

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encourages startups but also promotes their works and develops the

required skilled labor.

16. Make SME friendly legislation; there are good examples to follow from the

EU and USA such as the Small Businesses Act. Most creative workers are

entrepreneurial by their very nature and would want to start their own

businesses, make your environment not only business friendly but also SME

friendly.

17. Firms can encourage the demand for creativity by involving consumers in

the co-production of their good or service.

18. Make prizes for creativity, rewards do work. One example is the

Mohammad Ben Rashid Creative Awards.

19. Avoid the export of people; they are the essence of the creative

economy, cities and industries. Losing your creative workers to others is like

selling the trees not their fruit.

20. Ensure that the environment is safeguarded, no use sacrificing the future

for temporary economic gains.

Finally, build a creative economy culture, stay focused on the prize and process,

and link the creative activities together and with traditional services and industry.

Creativity and its inventions translate whenever possible into innovations that are

implementable.

ENCOURAGING INNOVATION

Culture, innovation and opportunity-driven entrepreneurship are the three poles

of a future-oriented society. The state must therefore, encourage the utilization of

culture and the development of an innovation culture in a system that offers

opportunities to entrepreneurs. A culture that demands and produces creative

and innovative products grows far beyond its traditional resource endowments,

suffers no diminishing but increasing returns and enters into a virtuous cycle of

creativity, innovation and development.

In a survey conducted four years ago in Jordan, owners of small enterprises,

when asked if they would implement innovations if availed to them, they said no!

They neither had the time nor could they see the benefit from it. Encouraging the

creation of an innovative culture has to do with competition, a thriving highly

contestable market that is value added focused and taking risks. People must

come to recognize competition and creative destruction as the road into a

better tomorrow. Promoting and propagating the spread of such a culture

places the overall framework for development within reach of all. Therefore:

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1. Have a sound, modern and stable economic environment. This is a

necessary underpinning; it is, however only a starting point.

2. Encourage access to finance, provide funds and loan guarantees, train

banks on dealing with the financing of innovations especially to SMEs, and

train SMEs on how to apply for such financing and receiving it.

3. Establish programs for industry and service upgrading; experience shows

that such programs do encourage innovation. Good programs would

address the main obstacles: demand, financing, training and utilization.

4. Improve your rankings in the Global Competitiveness Index, the Doing

Business Report, the Global Innovation Index; yes, those rankings do

matter, and regardless of what you think of them, they provide

benchmarks, follow them religiously and improve your nation’s score.

5. Complement the global indices with domestic and highly specific data

and measures. Build from the indices your own goals and targets and

measure them. Having detailed information at hand for your innovators,

creative workers and the traditional industries is a boon to all; do not

underestimate its benefit.

6. Focus on design, advertising and entertainment, which are drivers of

innovation in the broader economy and shape the “experience

economy”25.

7. Do not limit support to innovation in science and technology but also

encourage “soft innovation”, innovations that focus on the aesthetics26.

8. Does not be simply an exporter of inventions; also become an early

implementer of these inventions. Innovation encourages greater creativity

and more innovation, it is a virtuous cycle.

25 Pine, J. and Gilmore, J. (1999). The Experience Economy, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1999. 26 Stoneman, P. (2009). Soft innovation: Economics, Product Aesthetics and the Creative Industries.Oxford University Press, Oxford