For a country with no natural resources to speak of, its only means of shaping its own economic future and beating new paths toward prosperity is through the creativity, in all its manifestations, of its people.
We hear a lot about how the country’s human capital is its only natural resource and how that resource needs to be exploited, in the positive sense of the word, if it is to forge a new economic future for the present as well as for posterity.
What this boils down at the end of the day is not a question of the number of hours put in at the office or factory but rather the amount of creativity put into the tasks at hand, and the creativity of the country’s human capital to develop new areas of expertise and subsequent economic activity.
Along such lines, Friday’s announcement of a tax credit scheme aimed at encouraging the growth of the creative sector – a quickly-implemented budget measure - is welcome news.
In short, the Create scheme provides businesses in the creative industries with a 60 per cent tax credit, up to €25,000, toward costs related to business development, intellectual property and the development of artistic work. It covers all those operating in the areas of arts and crafts, the performing arts, digital media, music, literature, design and film and video production – areas that at the end of the day account, as matters currently stand, for four per cent of the country’s economic activity, 4,000 business concerns and 9,000 jobs. While significant, these are numbers that need to grow if the country is to create a new economic reality for itself.
What is important here is the fostering and nurturing of the country’s creative talent in such sectors, while bearing in mind that, if successfully nurtured they will increasingly spill over into the more traditional areas of business. Creativity is contagious, it is flexible, multi-faceted and it is a renewable resource.
Earlier this year a group of American experts brought in to study, realign and take the government’s Vision 2015 further identified the country’s creative economy – along with financial services, tourism, advanced manufacturing, transportation and advanced logistics, life sciences and international educational services – as areas that will be crucial in the country’s bid to position itself as a leading knowledge-based economy in the years to come.
Creative industries, according to the study published earlier this year, apart from standing as an economic sector in its own right, are also rightly placed as a central component to all other industries in focus.
The fact that Malta Enterprise, which usually deals with foreign direct investment and the industrial sector, is handling the scheme says a great deal about the direction the government is looking to take the country and its economy. This is not simply a freebie for the arts and related sectors, it is at once a reflection a cornerstone of a distinct notion of where the economy should be headed.
As the study in question had observed, most private sector creative enterprises are small to medium in size and typically require substantial support as they begin operations. The Create scheme unveiled on Friday is one important stride toward the goal.
Another worthy aspect to the scheme is that it incentivises such investment in characteristic areas of the island – Valletta, including the long-neglected Strait Street, Victoria and the Collachio area in Vittoriosa – ideal industries for such locations, and ideal locations for such industries.
Moreover, the aim is to create creative zones clustering such enterprises together and in the process providing for an easier cross fertilisation of ideas between similar industries and between different yet like-minded industries.
Such creative enterprises hold great potential in terms of generating economic growth and employment – in many cases out of thin air and in the process adding value from where there was none at all in the first place.
Yes, creativity can be a buzz word and the area can also easily be underestimated. Many parents have a tendency to steer their children away from the creative sector in general, directing them toward what they see as more stable employment prospects, but the youthful thirst to enter into creative arenas is a desire that must not be stifled.
The Maltese have long been known to be shrewd in business and trade, entrepreneurial spirit and acumen continually transforms the challenges faced by a small country such as Malta into opportunities. This is the very hallmark of creativity. Let the country rise to the challenge and the youth explore new creative areas. Let us flex our creative muscles and in the process tone those muscles and put them to greater work toward the betterment of the workforce, the economy and the country as a whole.
It may be but a small step but the Create scheme is a good starting point for reinvigorating and fostering a more creative economy and in the process a new economic future.