Cultural arts and creative industries
The creative economy in Albania has seen steady growth over the last decade and foundations are continuously being built. The introduction to the definition of creative industries in Albania began in 2005, when a group of Albanian participants took part in a creative industries conference in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. In 2006, Albania ratified the UNESCO 2005 Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions to develop cultural and creative industries by supporting and promoting inclusivity, collaboration, access and dissemination through several programs and projects.
The first publication referring to creative industries in the country was prepared by British Council Albania, “Mapping of Creative Industries in Albania”, reporting that 515 or 0.57% of businesses were categorized as creative industries, with 38.2% of creative industry businesses, 197 of 515, being located in the Tirana-Durres region (British Council Albania, 2007, p.23).
Understanding the necessity and importance of creative industries for Albania, workshops, reports, strategies and action plans have been designed and implemented in Albania to support their growth, such as the establishment of the Albanian Information Technology Association in 2007, reformatting of existing office to General Directory for Intellectual Property in 2008, law on Industrial Patents and Trademarks in 2008, 2010 adherence to European Convention of Patents, establishment of Adriapol Institute with a focus on creative economy in 2014, publication of a National Strategy for Intellectual and Industrial Property for 2010-2015, Copyright Law in 2016, and the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) adopted a regional action plan for culture and creative industries in 2015. After several drafts, consultations and more concrete recommendations, such as “A Cultural Strategy for Albania- Implementing the Cultural Bug” (Kern, P. 2018,) the first Albanian National Culture Strategy for 2019- 2025, since the 90’s, was published, referring to creative industries based on UNESCO’s definition “activities whose principal purpose is production or reproduction, promotion, distribution or commercialization of goods, services and activities of a cultural, artistic or heritage-related nature.” (Ministry of Culture, 2020, p.20).
Laws:
- Law Nr. 144/ 02/05/2012 addressed violations of industrial property rights with regards to the Criminal Code. Two special articles have entered into force (149/a and 149/b) that open the way to the State Police (Directorate of Economic Crime) to perform procedural actions on their own initiative in attacking criminal activities in violation of industrial property rights.
Documents:
- Technology and Innovation Strategy (STI) 2009-2015 prepared by the Ministry of Education and Science, UNESCO and coordinated by the Council of Ministers for Science
- National Strategy for Intellectual and Industrial Property 2010-2015 by the General Directorate for Patents and Trademarks
- The Business Innovation and Technology Strategy 2011-2016 (BITS) has a goal to increase the competitiveness of Albanian enterprises by encouraging and supporting innovation and technological development through financial, technical, informational, infrastructural and other types of support, improving framework conditions, creating a favourable environment to business innovation and strengthening the National Innovation System.
- National Strategy for converting from analogue to digital communication/ transmission 2012
- Business and Investment Development Strategy (BIDS) 2014-2020
- Digital Agenda of Albania 2015-2020 by the Council of Ministers and the Ministry of Innovation and Public Administration
Agreements:
- General Directorate of Industrial Property cooperation agreement with the EUIPO (European Union Intellectual Property Office), signed July 2015.
- Cooperation agreement with WIPO
- National Strategy for Intellectual Property 2016- 2020. In July 2016, the Albanian General Directorate for Industrial Property has made its trade mark and design data available to the TMview
According to the European Commission Staff working document on Albania 2020 Report: “…the General Directorate of Intellectual Property has prepared a draft Law on trade secrets in order to align with the EU acquis. The number of applications to register industrial property continued to rise with 2,654 new applications (including 1,475 trademarks and 1158 for patents) in the reporting period. The GDIP participated in 17 court proceedings. The SIMS Copyright Division of the State Inspectorate for Market Surveillance (SIMS) carried out 496 inspections resulting in 48 administrative measures. The activities of the SIMS Industrial Property Division took 74 administrative measures (69 warnings and five fines). The customs administration suspended the release of 23,440 products suspected of infringing IPR. The high number of counterfeit products in the country remains a cause for concern.”118
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