2021 will be declared by UNESCO as the World Year of the Creative Economy. Medellín seeks to position itself, through the GFACCT, as the Davos of culture and innovation.
The second version of the Great World Forum of Arts, Culture, Creativity and Technology -GFACCT, which ended yesterday, managed to consolidate Colombia as a benchmark for the creative economy in the world and Medellín, host of the event, such as Davos de la culture, creativity and innovation.
The GFACCT 2020 brought together 290 experts from 22 countries, representatives of governments and international cooperation organizations, who set the roadmap on cultural policy, especially to face the aftermath of the pandemic. More than 120 artists from all regions of the country participated in the programming.
The Minister of Culture of Colombia, Carmen Inés Vásquez, pointed out that more than a million and a half people, from 83 countries, were connected to the GFACCT, through a high-tech platform made by Colombians, in which they learned about experiences and the trends that will set the course in 2021, declared by UNESCO as the World Year of the Creative Economy.
Likewise, the official stressed that the GFACCT, which will be held again from September 8 to 11, 2021 in Medellín, offered a complete multilateral agenda, in which Colombia demonstrated its leadership before organizations such as Unesco, OAS and the IDB, among others.
“This contest is consolidated as a privileged space for high-level discussion on the contribution of the cultural and creative sectors to the human, social and economic development of the countries, in accordance with the Sustainable Development Goals, an initiative promoted by the Organization of the United Nations ”, affirmed the minister Carmen Inés Vásquez.
The mayor of Medellín, Daniel Quintero, firmly believes that art, education and technology are engines for economic development, and that artists and entrepreneurs will find tools to develop their projects and make them sustainable over time, thus encouraging the economic growth of the city through culture and creativity.
“In Medellín, headquarters of the GFACCT, a spirit of artistic and cultural development is being created for everyone. The city is betting on this with investment and with the creation of routes and cultural environments called Orange Development Areas; spaces whose purpose is to have areas for the formulation of projects focused on creative and cultural economies, ”said Mayor Quintero.
For his part, the Unesco Deputy Director General for Culture, Ernesto Ottone, highlighted the great effort that Colombia is making to implement a development model, in which cultural diversity and creativity are pillars of the country’s social and economic transformation. That is the model that we know today as the Orange Economy and that is already being referenced by various countries.
Follow the news of El Espectador on Google News“Colombia has had the ability in the last 20 years, despite the changes in government, to draw a line in terms of cultural policies that today allows it to speak of the creative economy as a pillar of the country’s development. That Colombian example, which is being exported to the world, today is transformed into a battle of struggle for those of us who believe that culture should be an axis of social cohesion, which opens up new possibilities for a closer dialogue with young people, ”he said. Ottone.
For his part, Richard Florida, one of the world’s leaders and intellectuals on issues of economic competitiveness, cultural and technological innovation, founder of the Creative Class Group, highlighted during his time at the GFACCT the South American country’s leadership in this field. “I have studied country after country, city after city, and none of them are up to the task of what Colombia is doing in terms of creative economy. The vanguard of the advanced economy is development, creativity and innovation, they are on the right track betting on the Orange Economy ”, he stated.
Let us remember that, since the implementation of the Orange Law in 2017, Colombia, headed by the Ministry of Culture, has carried out important actions in the field of cultural and creative industries, among which the creation of the National Economic Council stands out. Naranja, which articulates 12 entities of the National Government, with the aim of implementing actions that contribute to promoting the creative economy in all regions of the country.
Colombia has also strengthened the management of figures from the cultural and creative sector through its Satellite Account of Culture and Orange Economy, and has consolidated during this government 27 Orange Development Areas or creative districts, in 14 municipalities of the country.
Additionally, the National Government launched the most ambitious package of tax reliefs and incentives that the cultural and creative sector has had since the creation of the Ministry of Culture 23 years ago, and granted this entity the highest budget in its history for 2021, amounting to $ 414 billion.
According to the Vice Minister of Creativity and the Orange Economy, Felipe Buitrago, “the most important thing now is to focus on the challenges that allow continuity to the comprehensive strategy to strengthen the cultural and creative sector that has been worked on by the National Council of Orange Economy , as well as implementing the roadmap of the 2005 UNESCO convention in the digital environment “.
Before the end of the year, the Orange Bureau will be created, an initiative of the Ministry of Culture and the CoCrea corporation, which seeks to improve commercial integration, access and the circulation of cultural goods and services in the country.
The reactivation plan for the sectors of the Orange Economy
A few weeks ago, the Ministry of Culture of Colombia presented in the Congress of the Republic the Reactivarte Law, which contemplates the creation of the Mixed Fund for the promotion of the Arts, Culture, Heritage and Creativity- FONCULTURA, which may receive contributions of the public budget, the private sector and international cooperation, and which will be administered by the new corporation Colombia Crea Talento (CoCrea).
This new fund will allow the cultural sector to access new sources of financing for the development of projects that help preserve cultural heritage, promote artistic creation and promote the development of cultural and creative industries throughout the national territory. It will be a fundamental tool to support the reactivation of the sectors that are part of the Orange Economy.
Additionally, the Reactivarte Law project contemplates maintaining some of the tax benefits that were implemented during the economic emergency, such as the reduction and unification to 4% of the withholding rate at the source for cultural and creative activities, the exclusion of VAT tax for the artistic services contemplated for the realization of audiovisual productions of public performances of the performing arts, and the exemption of the withholding payment at the source for cultural public stimuli.
What are the Orange Economy tax incentives?
The tax package seeks to support projects in the audiovisual sector, through Decree 474 of 2020, which extends the benefits of the Colombia Filming Law for 10 years and extends them to other audiovisual genres. With the creation of the Audiovisual Investment Certificate (CINA), it is expected to attract investments of more than $ 260 billion in 2020 and generate more than 9,000 jobs for the sector.
The second incentive, contemplated in Decree 697 of 2020, grants those who donate or invest in Orange Economy projects a deduction of 165 percent in income tax. In 2020, it has an investment quota of $ 300 billion to leverage cultural and creative projects.
Finally, the incentive that grants the benefit of income exemption for 7 years for Orange Economy companies, seeks to support the Mypimes in the consolidation of their businesses, while generating employment and investment. Currently 313 companies in the cultural and creative sector have benefited, projecting investments of more than $ 83 billion and the creation of 2,900 jobs.
