Creative Industries Strategy

Today I launched a £7 million Creative IP (Intellectual Property) fund  at the opening of the SAND (Swansea Animation Days)  conference as part of the Welsh Assembly Government’s new Creative Industries Strategy.  The strategy marks a positive and significant change in public sector support for commercial creative businesses.

The Creative IP fund, which will be operational from 1st April 2005, is open to any creative business – whether UK or internationally based – looking to invest in projects in Wales.  The fund will provide gap funding for individual creative IP projects, such as a TV series or film.  In return for such an investment the Creative IP fund will take a share of the Intellectual Property generated by the project and will aim to recoup the value of the original investment.  This will allow creative businesses to retain more ownership of their IP, rather than having to give up all their IP rights.  The Creative IP fund has been set up to become self-funding, with returns of early investments funding investments in later years.

The new Creative Industries Strategy also marks a significant and positive change in the quality of specialist creative business advice provided by the public sector in Wales.  A new, industry-led, specialist support service will be developed to cover all aspects of advice for commercial creative businesses. An expert panel of private sector individuals will oversee the management and implementation of the Creative Industries Strategy.  The panel will be made up of individuals from the top tiers of management in national and international creative businesses.  Appointments to the panel are expected to be made imminently.

Consultation with successful creative business across the UK and beyond highlighted that there was clearly a demand for funding to help creative businesses retain more of their IP when working on new projects.  Currently many Wales-based creative business sell the IP to each project in their entirety.  This issue has been exacerbated by recent changes in tax breaks for private companies/individuals investing in creative projects, creating a bigger funding gap.  Establishing such a fund, for commercial creative businesses should provide significant benefits to creative businesses.

Collaboration with - and sales to - international creative businesses is key to the success of the Creative Industries in Wales. As a result, the fund is structured so that companies from outside of Wales seeking funding will automatically look to partner with Welsh businesses, and creative businesses within Wales will find it easier to develop content saleable in the global market.

This is one of the most significant funds available for the Creative Industries, I am particularly proud to put in place both a fund and a strategy that will undoubtedly help to strengthen and develop the Creative Industries in Wales.  It will also foster greater collaboration between Wales-based and International creative businesses.  With the Creative Industries growing at 2% faster than the UK economy as a whole, I expect this additional investment will allow the creative industries to make an even greater contribution to the Welsh economy.