Creative Industries will become a pillar of the economy. Coordinated by the Committee of Cultural Industries, a meeting was held in our gallery, CRATIVE MACAU, on January 15, 2011. President of the Committee Mr. Leong Heng Teng, member of the Committee and President of IEEM Dr. José Luís de Sales Marques ,also a member of the committee, are the two moderators of the meeting and there are 17 CREATIVE MACAU members attended.
The participants discussed about their own views on current situation of the local creative industries, as well as critical issue of the industries and its development.
Several conclusions were made:
“We need a university centers devoted to Fine Arts, Culture and Design”: Macau is a unique place where could be a well-known city of many cultures. Education is the “seed“ of it. Therefore, a well-planned education system in the subject of, exclusively, Art and Culture could lead a significant improvement.
“We need a remarkable place to expose our works”: A list of empty places where the government plans to let creative people to use will be a great help. This could build up a remarkable place for residents or tourists to know the Macau product or artworks.
“We need to know who is working in which field”: A group of people with different skills could help to create tremendous works. Interaction between artists is important. An online database of creative people with full details could let people get the appropriate partner for the events or to work with.
“We need supports to the industries”: A translator who is familiar with a specific creative industry is hard to find. There should be more and more people who know two of the major languages, namely Chinese, English and Portuguese.
“We need opportunities from local enterprise and government”: Entrepreneurs start their business with ”small capital” but “big ideas”. With little capital, local small business could not join international fairs easily nor rent a place to only sell their self-design products. Government or enterprise could offer more opportunities in a format of competition or tender. Price should not be the only criteria but the quality of the design and the works.
