On Tuesday, 19 November 2019, the Creative Industries Advisory Board at the BMDW presented its First Progress Report with recommendations for the implementation of the Creative Industries Strategy and handed it over to Section Head Florian Frauscher.
The report includes a monitoring of the Austrian Creative Industries Strategy drawn up in 2016 and provides an insight into the implementation successes achieved so far at the federal level. An overview shows that implementation activities have been completed or are already underway in two thirds of the measures. In the second part of the report, the Advisory Board describes new recommendations that go beyond the strategy measures. These recommendations take up current topics of the Austrian creative industries and aim to steer them in a modern, innovative and sustainable direction:
- Promotion of an impact-oriented creative industry
- Co-Creation creative company - medium-sized business
- Innovation support for the creative industries with EU funding instruments
- Growth strategies for female-managed creative companies
- New value creation models for the creative industries for the application of new technologies
- Award for Game Development & Gamification
Section head Frauscher emphasised the importance of the creative industries for the entire business location of Austria in terms of employment and turnover. Above all, its innovative power and transformative effect on the traditional economic sectors must be communicated more intensively and must be brought to public attention. The Federal Ministry for Digitization and Business Location supports the strengthening and active further development of the Austrian creative industries and will continue to promote the implementation of the Advisory Board's recommendations.
Photo credits: BMDW/Dolenc
Photo credits: BMDW/Dolenc
Photo credits: BMDW/Dolenc
June 2016: State Secretary Mahrer and WKÖ Vice President Schultz present creative industries strategy for more innovations -
40 million euros for more creativity
Yesterday evening, State Secretary Harald Mahrer presented the first creative industries strategy for Austria. "Our goal is to bring Austria back into the top group of innovation leaders in Europe. The power of the creative industries helps us to achieve this goal. It is a necessary source of ideas and makes the red-white-red motor continuously more powerful. This is why we have worked together with the creative industry to develop the first Austrian creative industry strategy. In addition, the Ministry of Economic Affairs will invest 40 million euros over the next five years to promote the creative potential in Austria even more strongly", said State Secretary for Economic Affairs Harald Mahrer.
Broad involvement of more than 100 experts over 3 months
The new strategy was developed in a three-month Open Innovation process under the leadership of the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economics (BMWFW) in cooperation with the Creative Industries Austria (KAT), the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKÖ) and Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH (aws). More than 100 creative professionals, together with experts from a wide range of fields, have formulated a vision and defined a clear roadmap until 2025.
Clear plan until 2025
"With the Creative Industries Strategy, we are setting out the road map up to 2025 in order to be able to add an innovation turbo for Austria's small-structured, strongly export-oriented economy in the coming years and to further strengthen the contribution of the creative industries. The sector plays a decisive role in innovation, as it creates new products and new services and supports its customers in all sectors of the economy in implementing their own innovations. It is therefore also a decisive factor for economic development in the regions", emphasises WKÖ Vice-President Martha Schultz. With about 42,000 companies and 150,000 employees, the creative industries are one of the outstanding sectors of the Austrian economy.
DI Bernhard Sagmeister, GF Austria Wirtschaftsservice GmbH / Dr. Gertraud Leimüller, Vice-Chairwoman of Creative Industries Austria / Dr. Christoph Schneider, Head of Economic Policy Department, WKÖ / State Secretary Dr. Harald Mahrer / Vice-President Martha Schultz, WKÖ / Gerin Trautenberger, BA hons, Chairman of Creative Industries Austria / Mag. Michaela Gutmann, LL.M., GF Creative Industries Austria
3 pillars - 8 fields of action - 22 measures
"Tomorrow's competition will be decided in the field of creativity. Already today every second creative company is responsible for innovations in other economic sectors. With the new strategy, we want to further expand the pioneering role of the creative industries and infect other sectors with the positive spirit of growth," says Mahrer. To achieve this, the fields of action and measures are based on three interlocking pillars:
- Thecompetitiveness of the Austrian creative industries can be improved by strengthening entrepreneurial competence. Reduced bureaucracy and financial relief should also create better location conditions.
- Transformation: This pillar focuses on successfully exploiting the transformative impact of creative people on other sectors of the economy, public administration and society. The aim here is to create incentives for crossover effects on the one hand, and to increase knowledge and awareness of the transformation potential and contribution of the creative industries to society and the economy as a whole on the other.
- Innovation: By increasing access to innovation spaces, knowledge and networking formats, the third pillar aims to broaden the innovation know-how of creative workers. Improved access to financing and capital should increase the willingness to experiment and innovate - also outside the classical R&D work.
Each pillar comprises specific fields of action, which have been concretised and operationalised through a total of 22 measures. These range from support in the field of education and training to an investment and participation allowance, the establishment of global networks and a greater reduction in bureaucratic hurdles.
aws advocates the use of the EU guarantee fund for the creative industries
With the help of the EU Guarantee Fund for the Creative Industries within the Creative Europe Programme, access to bank loans is to be facilitated by securing the risk. "Our aim is that the guarantee fund will also become effective in Austria. It is not always easy for banks to evaluate the services provided by our creative people, as they are usually intangible assets. This is precisely where the fund comes in, by securing the risk and thus opening up new financing channels for the creative industries," emphasises aws managing director Bernhard Sagmeister. Austria's participation in the fund is to be carried out by aws.
Photo credits: Michele Pauty
