Creative Space Serbia: export promote emerging creative industries
Support measures designed to have a direct effect in cultural expressions of individuals, groups or societies, including on the creation, production, dissemination, distribution and access to cultural activities, goods and services.
Exploring the possibilities for promotion of Serbian designers and creators at the foreign markets and partnership with business sector.
Serbia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) initiated and participated in the promotion of cultural industries in order to expand the market for cultural expressions in the emerging cultural industries field. It is precisely the mission of this agency to use its activities to help Serbian companies to export their products and services and become more competitive in foreign markets. The "Creative Space Serbia" is a platform for supporting cultural industries, through which several program lines are supported: Design Exhibition in Milan, Italy (each year since 2009), promoting Serbia as an attractive filming location, and "REDesigne" – designing new brands. At the exhibitions in the city of Milan, Serbian designers have been promoted, but also the cooperation of domestic designers and furniture manufacturers. There is an Open Calls for participating in this exhibition.
Promotion of Serbia as a filming location is being performed at specialized fairs through brochures and promotional material of SIEPA. In 2009 the Film Association was supported for participating at the "Filming Locations Fair" in Los Angeles, where certain places in Serbia were promoted as potential film locations.
"REDesigne" is the program for designing new brands. SIEPA supports students of industrial design through this program for redesigning packages of existing export oriented products.
Challenges identified in the implementation of this measure: Cultural industries are still not adequately recognized in Serbia, and activities that are being performed are still at their beginning and based on the sensibility of both the certain government bodies and the creative sector. A small and limited budget of SIEPA is being directed towards the promotion of export branches that have been recognized as a priority. That is why limitations are visible on the scope of activities in cultural industry, their export promotion and facilitation of access to new markets.
37 designers and design studios were supported at the "Satellite salon", "Milan Furniture Fair", "Milan Design Week" and "Zona Tortona", and in 2011 the brand of Serbian design was presented for the first time. Companies and creative artists are connected and many design solution were developed, which contributed to the expansion of a new market for the domestic design. With these activities the international visibility and inquiries for production of design solutions were achieved, primarily for foreign hotels and restaurants. Serbia has been actively promoting itself as an attractive filming location in international film markets and respectable Fairs.