NCCA leads international conference on cultural statistics and creative economy

NATIONAL Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) led the 2018 International Conference on Cultural Statistics and Creative Economy held in Diamond Hotel, Roxas Boulevard, Malate, Manila on October 3 and 4, 2018. NCCA Executive Director Rico S. Pableo Jr. welcomed the participants with a notable remark, and an inspirational message from the national artist Chairman Virgilio S. Almario, read by NCCA Plan/ Policy Formulation and Programming Division Chief Bernan Corpuz.

The aims of the conference, delivered by NCCA Deputy Executive Director Marichu G. Tellano, are to draw awareness about Philippine cultural statistics framework, and ignite various stakeholders in building data and statistics; provide platform to quantify contributions of culture to development; expose people to different methodology, process and tools of building cultural statistics and the utilization of cultural statistics framework for defining contribution of culture to development; lastly, to push for appreciation of the rule of cultural statistics in strengthening Philippine creative economy.

The 2018 International Conference on Cultural Statistics and Creative Economy exhibited the initiatives of neighboring Southeast Asian countries in their creative economies and their studies about statistical data on cultural studies.

NCCA Cultural Heritage Commissioner Harold Ll. Rentoria Pangasinan introduced the keynote speaker of the conference, 4th District Representative Hon. Christopher V.P. De Venecia. Hon. De Venecia shared some of the revenue generating activities which contributes millions to the economy of the Philippines, such as, galleries and sale of works by different artist like Ben Cab and Amorsolo; theater productions being staged locally; and concerts held at the Mall of Asia Arena. He also cited a study from the United Kingdom stating that creative industries are defined using the concept of creative intensity, where the term creative intensity is the proportion of total employment within a sector that is engaged in creative occupation. On the other hand, he wants to propose a legislation that provides welfare and protection for artist, challenging the assumption that artist in a country that does not provide enough support to special category of workers means to prepare one selves for a life of poverty.

The conference consists of six sessions, moderated by Philippine Institute for Development Studies Senior Research Fellow Dr. Jose Ramon Albert, De La Salle University Manila professor Dr. Ma. Florina Orillos-Juan, University of the Philippines Baguio Professor Arvin Villalon, South Sea Pearl Museum and Bidibidi Enterprises Vice President and owner Bernadette delos Santos, Board of Investments and Creative Economy Champion Former Senior Investment Specialist Paul Tajon, and University of the Philippines Diliman professor Dr. Joseph Palis.

On the first session that aims to analyze cultural data, Daniele Cristina Dantas, a Ph.D. student in Federal University in Brazil presented her paper on Algorithms and Big data as a Strategy for Capturing and Analyzing Cultural Data in Platform Content Flows. On the other hand, Mr. Yudistira, Secretariat of Directorate General of Culture, Ministry of Education in Indonesia, talked about the Indonesia Culture for Development Index: A First Step for Making Cultural Development Policies in Indonesia Based on Quantitative Data.

While the second session of the conference