The global economy has entered a new stage of development – innovation, knowledge, and creativity are now the key criteria for successful economic growth. Data and talent will push the 21st century into an unforgiving race. In this drag race, creative ideas will serve as the fuel, and relationship and knowledge networks will be the safety belts.

Creative industries have a demonstrable economic power in both the global economy, contributing to growth, employment and income creation. The global export value of creative products and services was 620.4 billion USD in 2008, 536 billion USD in 2009 and 559 billion USD in 2010. The global export of creative services alone has also increased significantly, as it was worth 62 billion USD in 2002, 163.8 billion USD in 2010 and 172 billion USD in 2011. 

The sector has growth and contribution to GDP potential, thus developing and supporting creative and knowledge-intensive industries has become a cornerstone of growth strategies in many countries. This is not only motivated by economic considerations; growing investment into creative and cultural sectors contributes greatly to social progress, community welfare, individual quality of life and life satisfaction.