Creative Export South Africa will
• Increase recognition and knowledge of the economic value of the cultural and creative industries (CCIs), with their corresponding higher policy profile in the context of both current and proposed programmes in terms of export revenues and potential for growth; this is placed alongside the global recognition of a ‘creative economy’ which is rapidly expanding in new ways in the context of both digitization and globalisation.
• Increase integration of CCIs (SMEs and micro-enterprises) within foreign trade initiatives (export strategies, advisory services, trade missions) formerly addressed to more traditional,larger-scale economic sectors.

Driving innovation and competitiveness across the economy:
• We attend to the specific elements that make creative businesses and entrepreneurs “exceptional”, and integrate approaches where such exceptionalism doesn’t exist. For example, introduce investment readiness activities for creative businesses but only introduce targeted investment where there is real evidence of market failure in mainstream investment sources (such as retail banks, equity funds etc.). For example, introduce export insurance
incentives for businesses trading in creative goods and services only where there is evidence of weaker exports for such businesses because of inaccessibly high insurance costs. This requires an evidence-based approach and one grounded on knowledge rather than aspiration.
• We open up international markets for creative businesses by brokering peer exchanges between entrepreneurs working in different markets. Just as we encourage exchange between policy-makers … we should encourage both knowledge and trade-focused collaboration between different creative businesses. This is particularly important in smaller markets where
access to skills and different types of capital is limited. We can support our creative entrepreneurs to “scale-up” through international collaboration.
• We develop a set of globally recognised metrics for valuing intangible assets. This means mapping effective business models, tracking returns on investment, and balancing an appreciation of the different assets in a business (or consortia of businesses) – such as in management, finance, marketing and technology.’