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International Business WalesCreative Industries

Creative Industries

The UK has the largest creative sector in the EU and relative to GDP, the largest in the world. The creative industries sector (as defined by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport) is now comparable in size to that of the financial services sector, making up 7.3% of the economy and growing at 5% per year (almost twice the rate of the rest of the economy). 

The sector as a whole directly employs 1.1 million people in the UK with a further 800,000 people working in creative occupations.  

In recognition of the economic significance of the creative industries, the Welsh Assembly Government published their strategy ‘Creative success - a strategy of the creative industries in Wales’ in 2004 and established Creative Business Wales in 2006 to help deliver this strategy. 

Creative Business Wales supports and encourages Welsh creative businesses within the television, film, music and new/interactive media sectors that can make a significant contribution to the economy, particularly through the creation, retention and exploitation of intellectual property. 

Wales’ thriving activity within this sector has made it an attractive place for companies to invest. 

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Front Cover of Advances Wales, 62 Winter 2009

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