Creative City Concept... A well needed CCC Term by Developing Countries

A new concept in urban and city planning is being introduced to us in RPK 538 (Sustainable Development Planning) by energetic guest lecturer Khoo Suet Leng ( SENIOR LECTURER & PROGRAMME CHAIRPERSON, DEVELOPMENT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAM SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, USM ) and it is "Creative City Concept". 

The term itself is very striking and appealing as it initiates very first thought comes in mind is about how a city can behave or act creatively. As the creative term is being mostly associated with humans or some arts / painting kind of things. A city is a living organism with roads, infrastructures, developed and developing urban settlements along with humans , flora & fauna as its blood. So such complex structure can be a source of creativity in terms of sustainable development.

Well may be its new to developing countries but developed countries like USA and UK have actually implemented this concept in New York, San Francisco, London emerging out to be successful creative cities.

Coming to the basics of creative city, it is the one and its kind of city  which has independent identity, uniqueness and self generating opportunity feature. It has its own identity and it is capable of using the hard infrastructure ( roads, bridges, buildings) and soft infrastructure ( arts, culture, man power) in a creative way. Creative entity is one which can generate on its own and is not dependent for some outsourcing. This is the what the today worlds mantra or slogan: be creative. whether its a small electronic chip to a dress designer shop, some pastry or cakes or a bulding facade now everything has definition with impression of creativity included.

 According to Canadian Harcourt Committee there are four pillars for creative sustainbility of a city:

• Economic prosperity
• Social equity
• Environmental sustainability
• Cultual vitality

The new added pillar "culture" is of great importance as it is the most creative feature of a city if it is provided with proper workplan and care then arts & culture altogether creates opportunities for development, urban settlement, employment , tourism and consequently makes it attraction point for foreign investment for potential projects. 

Cities across the globe have got name and popularity in terms of cultural notions. 

Appointed Cities of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network:

•CITY OF LITERATURE   (Edinburgh, Melbourne, Dublin)

•CITY OF FILM/CINEMA  (Bradford, Sydney)

•CITY OF MUSIC  (Seville, Bologna, Glasgow, Ghent)

•CITY OF CRAFTS & FOLK ART  (Santa Fe, Aswan, Kanazawa, Incheon)

•CITY OF DESIGN  (Buenos Aires, Berlin, Montreal, Kobe, Seoul)

•CITY OF MEDIA ARTS  (Lyon)

•CITY OF GASTRONOMY  (Popayan, Chengdu, Ostersund)

The key persons to work for the concept of creative cities are Charles Landry and Richard Florida. Both names are well known for their valuable additions to this concept. Charles Landry along with his colleague developed "creative city index."

Furthermore in recent years, ‘creative industries, creative cities’  motto garnered importance in developmental agendas of developed and developing nations. Recent example of developing creative city is Singapore where one can observe handsome use of the workforce while locating them in intellectual fields of science & IT, culture, industries. 

if you want to shine on the surface of world, you need to be creative in your own ways. Same applies for urban development of cities. 

Case of George town, Penang Malaysia

Last but not least there is overview of transforming penang into creative city taking the case of George town, based on paper presented during ICBEDC conference, 6-7 December 2011 by khoo suet leng and nurwati badarulzaman (Universiti Sains Malaysia). george town being declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO since july 2008 has the great potential in turning the city of penang into creative industrial hub with perspective of creative city. This is possible if proper work and planning done on the following pillars  / dimensions:

• Human capital (educating the workforce in terms of art and cultural belongings & skills)
• Diversity (city should keep open for diverse ways for travelling and communication)
• Social and cultural environment (insufficent facilities for art, theatre and cultural activities, it should be upgraded)
• Institutional envrionment (Government should be divided into organizational sectors)
• Technology (IT and technology aspect should be included in every sector of administration and education)