The Value of a Satellite Account for Culture: a policy perspective Presentation at the OECD Workshop on the International Measurement of Culture, Paris, 4-5 December 2006 Kimmo Aulake, Special Government Adviser

Growing interest in the economic impact of culture Cultural industries are an important part of continuously growing services industries Globally, their growth rate has outperformed the overall economic growth Nationally, however, there seems to be significant variations They have traditionally been approached mainly from cultural, not economic, perspective and their potential to boost economic growth has not been taken fully into account Currently, there is a boom of interest both nationally and internationally

Lacking knowledge base Many states have elaborate cultural statistics but economic aspects are usually not at the core The studies/surveys on the economic aspects have typically been carried out by research institutes, not national statistical bodies They have used varying terminology such as creative industries, copyright industries or cultural industries Comparisons between the studies are difficult or impossible due to differing methodologies and/or scope There is an evident lack of knowledge base on the economic impact of culture both nationally and internationally Difficult to argue in favour of measures intended to strengthen the economic basis of cultural production and/or to follow up their effectiveness

National and international initiatives Creative industries - UK, New Zeeland Copyright industries - USA, Australia Cultural industries – Canada UNESCO – cultural statistics framework in the 1980's and work on international flows of cultural goods and services European Union – Leadership Group on Cultural Statistics in the EU WIPO – Creative Industries Division, development of research methodology OECD – International Measurement of the Economic and Social Importance of Culture, SNA-based systems and Culture Satellite Accounts?

Plans in Finland Interministerial Working Group concluded that: there is a relative wealth of information on the economy of culture however, the information is not coherent and it is based on a number of different sources and it is collected to serve different purposes The Working Group proposes that: a Cultural Satellite be developed to provide for a coherent framework for gathering and analysing statistical information on the economy of culture Piloting of the Satellite will begin in 2007 with the objective of having a basic model of the Satellite (macro-information module) in production use in 2008 The basic model is to be further developed to include additional modules