Unleashing Innovative Insights: Lessons about Kazakhstan's Hidden Potential, Derived from Indian Experiences.
A whirlwind trip to Mumbai for the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit left me spellbound, more than just a journalist writing headlines. It felt like being part of a grand movement, immersed in a city that pulsates with color, chaos, and creativity.
Mumbai isn't just a city; it's a heartbeat, a pulse that doesn't merely welcome you, but absorbs you. Among the bustling crowds, I stood closer than ever to Indian cinema legends like Shah Rukh Khan and Mithun Chakraborty, whose on-screen worlds once captivated me on Kazakhstan TV screens.
But what truly left me in awe was a statement by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi: "Screen size may be getting smaller, but the scope is becoming infinite." This simple observation echoed the power and accessibility of influencing hearts and minds in the digital era.
Modi urged creators worldwide to dream big and share their stories, stressing that creativity is a force, not a luxury. Investment in people, not just platforms, is what he emphasized, as India aims to grow its creative market to $50 billion by 2029.
As I listened to Modi, I couldn't help but question Kazakhstan's creative sector, which remains largely dormant. Although we share a wealth of stories, flavors, and traditions that can captivate global audiences, our creative industry lags behind the global average.
In 2022, global creative services exports reached a staggering $1.4 trillion, up 29% since 2017. Meanwhile, creative goods rose to $713 billion, up 19%. This growth isn't just a fringe economy; it's the future. Kazakhstan is taking notice, but our progress must become more than a footnote, a national strategy instead.
India's example showed me that we don't need to mimic others. Instead, we should embrace our unique identity and manifest it proudly and with purpose. I left the WAVES summit inspired and determined to bring that wave back to Kazakhstan.
To catch this wave, we must focus on building platforms for storytelling, fostering our filmmakers, designers, musicians, animators, and digital creators. We must invest in nurturing creative talent, not just as a hobby, but as a profession vital to our nation's progress.
India's creative economy operates efficiently, with sectors like digital advertising, music, cinema, and video games growing steadily. To match India's scale and success, Kazakhstan must prioritize regulatory modernization, export-oriented growth, and inclusive education models while capitalizing on its evolving digital infrastructure.
By establishing creative hubs, leveraging our cultural heritage, implementing industry-specific policies, and mobilizing investment, we can triple sector output, formalize creative careers, and allocate resources for R&D in creative tech. A national creative industries observatory can help track our progress and address data deficiencies.
Let's seize the power of storytelling, invest in ourselves, and embrace our creativity as the foundation of shared peace, identity, and humanity. After all, when you tell your story, the world listens. So, let's ride this wave together and celebrate our uniqueness loud and proud.
- My encounter with Indian cinema legends like Shah Rukh Khan and Mithun Chakraborty in Mumbai underscores the potential for education-and-self-development through entertainment and movies-and-TV, encouraging personal growth.
- Narendra Modi's emphasis on investing in people, not just platforms, could be a guiding outlook for the growth of Kazakhstan's creative sector, as it strives to attain a scale similar to India's, reaching a $50 billion creative market by 2029.
- The footnote of Kazakhstan's creative sector being dormant compared to global averages highlights the necessity for the nation to capitalize on its unique identity, focusing on regulatory modernization, export-oriented growth, and inclusive education models to thrive in the digital era.
- By fostering creativity as a profession, establishing creative hubs, leveraging cultural heritage, and implementing industry-specific policies, Kazakhstan can triple sector output, formalize creative careers, and allocate resources for R&D in creative tech, setting a path towards shared peace, identity, and humanity.
