Creative Economy Agency

On 29 November 2022, Creative Economy Agency (Public Organization) or CEA, Department of Information, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Digital Economy Promotion Agency (depa), held the 1/2022 meeting of The Policy Committee for National Image Enhancement through Soft Power, led by Mr. Itthiphol Kunplome, Minister of Culture, as chairman representative of Mr. Supattanapong Punmeechaow, Deputy Prime Minister. 

Participants in the meeting include representatives from the public sector, including the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, Research and Innovation, the Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as representatives from the private sector and network partners, including The Thai Chamber of Commerce and Board of Trade of Thailand, Federation of Thai Industries, Digital Council of Thailand, Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), The National Federation of Motion Pictures and Contents Associations, Radio-Television Broadcasting Professional Federation, Foreign Film Production Services Association, and PTT PCL. 

The meeting intends to define a policy framework for pushing Thailand’s Soft Power with the participation from all sectors to assist economic recovery following COVID-19 and enhance Thailand's leadership role in the global arena.

Thailand obtains the 5Fs cultural assets which are Food, Fight, Film, Fashion, and Festival. In 2022, Thailand was ranked 35th in the Global Soft Power Index, and its content and digital content industry were internationally accepted. As a result, the committee has approved the guidelines for driving Thai Soft Power in the early phase or Quick Win (6-12 Months) in three areas, which are:

1. Promote 5Fs that are popular and in need in the ASEAN and Asian markets.
2. Disseminate the national branding.
3. Expand the support of the content and digital content industry in Thailand by arranging events at home and abroad.

These three areas are based on regional goals for ASEAN and Asia under the concept of "Connecting Asia" and are implemented through 2 strategies, PUSH & PULL, which are:

1. Promote Content and Digital Content Exports in ASEAN and Asian Markets (PUSH): increase content support for exhibitions, contests, and international trade markets. Expand activity agreements for the public and commercial sectors overseas. Concentrate on utilizing a consistent set of images for communication.

2. Attract Foreign Investment, Business, and Activities into the country (PULL): arrange icon events, promote technology to support the New Business, and improve the incentive measures and regulations to facilitate foreign investment. In addition, the committee also considered measures, plans, and projects for the public and private sectors to support such strategies and drive them into action, such as the measure to promote investment trust funds for leveraging the quality of Thai content onto the international standards, along with 10 projects in the fiscal year 2023, with an estimated budget of 263 million baht. The key projects are Thai Festival, the business matching activity in Hong Kong Film & TV Market 2023, Content Lab, and the Thailand Film Incentive Measure for the foreign production set.
 

In addition, there is also a project to develop skills and enhance the potential of the entrepreneurs in the gaming industry to reach international standards under the Digital Economy and Society Development Fund, the Soft Power for Better Thailand project by PTT Public Company Limited. Seven more projects in 2023 are proposed with a budget of approximately 575 million baht. The major projects are the Miss Universe competition by the Ministry of Culture, and Thai Music Artist to the Global Stage by CEA.

The committee also prepared plans and projects for 2024 to drive Thailand’s Soft Power, which include 16 projects such as the International Market for Game Industry, Asian Contents & Film Market (ACFM) 2023, Thailand International Content Market 2024 (TICoM), and expansion of Cultural Product of Thailand (CPOT), etc.

The committee has agreed to the long-term plans to advance Thailand's Soft Power which include the Action Plan on enhancing Thailand's Soft Power through Entertainment Media and the Plan on enhancing Thailand's Soft Power through Culture for Economic and Social Development (2023-2027) led by the Ministry of Culture. The framework will be broadened to include a variety of aspects as a result, and Soft Power will be used to strengthen the national brand in the international arena and support the expansion of the Thai economy and tourism.
 

Posted in news-en on Dec 09, 2022