British Council Creative Economy

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Vietnam

Vietnam is a rapidly transforming country with a burgeoning market for creative goods and services and an increasingly confident and productive creative industries sector.

It has a large domestic market of 90 million people, and forms part of a rapidly expanding regional market across East Asia (as one of the growing CIVET nations).  The rich and varied cultural landscape spans traditional ‘heritage’ crafts to contemporary fashion, photography and textiles – all fuelled by the growth in tourism. With a growing middle class, expanded international connections, and market opportunities to add value to the manufacturing and technology sectors, there is huge growth potential for the cultural and creative industries.

As a country rich in visual culture and historic skills in handicraft, a young population exploring entrepreneurship and a fast growing IT sector, Vietnam has good foundations for developing its creative economy.  

Since its establishment in Vietnam twenty years ago, The British Council’s arts team has already showcased a rich and varied programme of UK arts in Vietnam (as well as Vietnamese arts in the UK) and has built strong relationships with local industry, supporting networks for creative entrepreneurs in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.  

Through our programme in Vietnam, we want to promote creative business acumen, mobilise creative networks and generate collaborations between Vietnamese and UK entrepreneurs. We also want to working with local partners to build an effective approach to the sector’s development, including the delivery of the new Cultural Industries Policy framework and the establishment of a Creative Economy Task Force which helps position culture as a key driver of the national economy –and as a provider of talent, ideas, content and innovation. There is a strong commitment from government to optimize the creative economy’s impact on social and economic growth.  Authorities include the Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Construction, Hanoi Trade Promotion Centre, and People’s Committees, many of whom have been in active discussion with the British Council to explore cooperation opportunities in this area.