The Government will select 10 provinces as “creative city prototypes” in a pilot project under the Creative Thailand program, aimed at increasing the value of Thai products and services.

Deputy Commerce Minister Alongkorn Ponlaboot said that the selection would be completed by July 2011. The creative city prototypes must be able to increase their economic value, based on their history, culture, arts, traditions, wisdom, and innovations.

He said that the Government would hold a World Creative Economy Forum in late November 2010. The forum will consist of four major events, a world creative economy forum, a contest of world movies, a contest of international designs, and a festival of international broadcasting.

According to Mr. Alongkorn, the Government is pushing for the creation of a movie town for film shooting. The project will develop Thailand as a movie production center in Asia. Moreover, the Government is seeking a suitable site for development into a special economic zone for creative industries. The objective is to increase the country’s economic value to 900 billion baht by the year 2012, or the share of Thailand’s creative industrial value from 12 percent today to 20 percent of GDP in the next two years.

Concerning the creative economy, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that the Government is determined to move Thailand forward, more competitively and innovatively. Thailand must push forward its competitive advantage, particularly as its economy makes the transition toward a “creative” economy. The Government launched the Creative Thailand policy in 2009 in order to enhance the competitiveness of the country in the international arena.

After the establishment of the National Creative Economy Policy Committee last year in order to set guidelines for creative economy policy and to ensure its implementation, Thailand is now in the process of forming a Creative Economy Agency to assist in the translation of this policy into action.

The Government has allocated 8.24 billion baht for creative economy activities carried out by the Ministry of Industry, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and other agencies. The Prime Minister stated that the Government is introducing education reform, and the heart of the reform is to create an important foundation for the enhancement of a knowledge-based economy, or the creative economy, in the future.

The Board of Investment will also be actively supporting the drive toward a Creative Economy in Thailand, and through its new investment policy for sustainable development, it will help the country improve its human resources potential through increased occupational training and education, as well as measures to strengthen science and technology. These steps will support knowledge-based industries in Thailand.

The Government has adopted the creative economy as a key engine to move the country forward under the 10th National Economic and Social Development Plan, 2007-2011, and the 11th National Economic and Social Development Plan 2012-2016.