The share of the creative industry in Kazakhstan's GDP is approximately 1%, whereas in developed countries this figure can reach up to 12% of GDP. This was stated by Majilis deputy Nartai Sarsengaliev during an extended thematic meeting of the Committee on Social and Cultural Development on the topic: "Development of the Creative Industry," as reported by a correspondent from the business information center Kapital.kz.
"The creative industry is fundamentally important for us, but only in recent years have we begun to pay attention to this sector. It includes 14 areas. We believe that this field has a budgetary component. Currently, the turnover in the creative industry is 2.3 trillion tenge," he noted.
Nartai Sarsengaliev believes that where the state is involved, the results are often quite disappointing. Therefore, the deputies opposed the idea of creating a fund for the development of the creative industry in Kazakhstan, as they did not hear a response on how it would be established and what stimulating tools would be effective.
"We rank 84th in the world in terms of creative industry indicators, just as we did in 2015. This means we have not made any progress; if you remain stagnant, you are degrading... We should now be discussing the goal of increasing the creative industry's share in GDP to 3%. However, there are several issues," said Nartai Sarsengaliev.
For instance, the Concept for the Development of the Creative Industry for 2023-2025 has been adopted, according to which creative hubs should be established in the regions.
"Yes, this work is underway; for example, 486 million tenge from JSC 'Samruk-Kazyna' has been allocated for the creation of hubs in the West Kazakhstan region, but everything is quite opaque. We do not see the flow of funds, and the creative concept does not fully address the interests of youth, leaving them somewhat excluded from this industry. We have identified 43 areas of the creative industry, all focused on applied arts. There was a strong push for the development of applied arts with a national theme, but due to the lack of government support, this idea fell apart again," the deputy emphasized.
According to him, 144,000 Kazakhs are employed in the creative industry, and in the last three months, there has been an increase of 50,000 people.
"It is necessary to create a register of creative directions. Unfortunately, there is neither a database for the creative industry nor a register. To develop this area comprehensively, we must protect the creators," he stressed.
The deputy noted that there are 15-16 author communities operating in Kazakhstan, but they retain 70% of the income for themselves and only pay out 30% as author remuneration.
"There are also many questions here. For example, we can currently purchase co-authorship. And here you can already see that our copyright is not protected," clarified Nartai Sarsengaliev.
According to him, it is necessary to make additions and amendments to Article 7 of the law on copyright protection.