Thailand plans to host a World Creative Economic Forum later this year. ASEAN countries have shown interest in Thailand’s proposal to host this event in December 2010.

The Cabinet, during its meeting on April 7, heard a report prepared by the Ministry of Commerce on the outcome of the 16th ASEAN Economic Ministers Retreat, held in Malaysia on 27-28 February 2010. The report says that Thailand told the ASEAN meeting about the World Creative Economic Forum, and the ASEAN economic ministers had expressed their support for the forum.

According to the Department of Intellectual Property, the forum is a step toward developing Thailand into a creative economy hub in the ASEAN region. It is in line with the Government’s policy of increasing the country’s proportion of creative economy value from 12 percent to 20 percent of GDP by the year 2012. Fifteen creative projects are being launched as pilot projects, involving arts, media, designs, fashion, architecture, and software.

The Director-General of the Department of Intellectual Property, Mrs. Pajchima Tanasanti, said that the Department would be the host of the World Creative Economic Forum. She quoted statistics compiled in 2006 that Thailand’s creative industrial value stood at 840.62 billion baht, involving mainly handicraft and jewelry production.

A report, prepared by the Fiscal Policy Research Institute and the Kenan Institute Asia, states that in 2008, Thailand’s creative industries contributed 1.067 trillion baht, about 32 billion US dollars, in sales and more than 325 million baht, about 9.7 billion dollars, in added value. These industries accounted for 9.53 percent of total Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the value added amounting to 2.86 percent of GDP in 2008.

Revenue from the jewelry industry accounted for 4.73 percent of GDP. In 2008, 875,500 workers, or 2.4 percent of Thailand’s workforce, were employed in the selected creative industries. The IT industry had the highest employment, accounting for 1.2 percent of total employment. The jewelry and related articles industry had the largest value- added contribution to GDP of 0.97 percent. The creative industries, excluding the IT industry, contributed an average value-added of 750,000 baht per worker. The jewelry industry had relatively high value-added per worker of approximately 2.6 million baht, while the printing and publishing industry had value-added of 2.3 million baht per worker. This is well above the average value-added per worker of 309,230 baht, and nearly triple the 786,850 baht value-added per worker in manufacturing.

In terms of international trade, exports of the selected creative industries totaled more than 429 billion baht in 2008, about 7 percent of total exports, and, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) statistics, has been growing steadily. The main exporting sectors were the IT sector, with exports worth about 192 billion baht, and the jewelry and related articles sector, with exports worth more than 157.7 billion baht.