Ha Noi – the British Council officially launched its latest publication on creative cultural spaces in Viet Nam, Vision for Creativity 2025. This publication marks a ten-year journey in the development of creative cultural spaces, and represents the next step in the British Council's commitment to supporting the growth of the creative industry in Viet Nam, in accordance with the National Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries to 2030, with a vision toward 2045.
Creative industries are a driving force for economic growth and are among the top priority growth tasks of many governments. In Viet Nam, one of the countries with the fastest-growing creative industries in the world, GDP growth is expected to maintain a rate of 6.6% during the period 2024-34. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Viet Nam is in the process of developing the second National Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries to 2030, with a vision to 2045, committed to harnessing the growth potential of the sector.
'Ten years after the first implementation of the creative ecosystem mapping programme in 2014, the British Council is relaunching this programme to provide creatives, cultural managers, policymakers and the interested public with a more comprehensive view of the current landscape. This time, we are more focused on the vision of innovative creatives for the future development of the sector.' – Nguyen Phuong Thao, Head of the Arts and Creative Industries Programme, British Council in Viet Nam.
Implemented over six months, Vision for Creativity 2025 is the fourth publication by the British Council in this field, following the first mapping exercise of the creative hubs in Viet Nam (2014), the Creative Hubs Report (2018), and the Viet Nam Cultural Profiles (2020).
The 139-page publication consists of two main parts, featuring the participation of 300 creative hubs, individuals and organisations currently working in creativity in Viet Nam, in six localities: Da Lat, Da Nang, Hoi An, Ha Noi, Hue, and Ho Chi Minh City.
- Profile Section: includes interviews with Viet Nam’s creative industries sector builders, their exciting projects that they are working on, and their vision for the creative sector in Viet Nam five to ten years from now.
- Listing Section: features organisations and individuals active in the arts, culture and creative sector across Viet Nam.
From 40 creative cultural spaces in the first implementation of the creative ecosystem mapping programme in 2014, to 300 after ten years, Vision for Creativity 2025 records progress in the development journey through the promising number of Viet Nam's creative space networks.
The approach to the creative ecosystem mapping survey this time differs from previous ones. Instead of collaborating with an expert or an organisation in Ha Noi with extensive relationships across the country, artists and creatives living in each locality were invited to conduct local research surveys. This means that the format of each local ecosystem was built through the perspective of local people, leveraging local knowledge and networks, and hopefully providing a closer, more practical approach to creative collaboration in each place.
'We hope that Vision for Creativity 2025 will be a useful resource for drafting the National Strategy for the Development of Cultural Industries to 2030, with a vision to 2045, as the launch of this publication will accompany the drafting and approval of the Strategy. We also wish to honour the creative industry and hope that this publication will be a useful positioning for future collaborations between creatives and creative localities in Viet Nam and beyond.' – Nguyen Phuong Thao, Head of the Arts and Creative Industries Program, British Council in Viet Nam.
Read the full Vision for Creativity 2025 publication here.