The Ministerial Forum of the Berlin Process for the Creative Economy, organized by Montenegro in the capacity of this year’s Chair of the Berlin Process, opened today in Herceg Novi, bringing together ministers responsible for culture and representatives from the Western Balkans and the rest of Europe to discuss the role of creative industries in sustainable development, youth employment and regional competitiveness.
The forum continues the dialogue started in 2025 during the Presidency of the United Kingdom with the Berlin Process and is organized by the Ministry of Culture and Media of Montenegro, in cooperation with the British Council.
“The Western Balkans cannot compete globally through labor costs alone. We must compete with ideas, authenticity, digital skills, culture, experience and identity. Creative industries are not marginal cultural activities. They create jobs, generate exports, attract visitors, strengthen the image of the region and give young people a reason to stay and build their future here. Creativity is not decoration. Creativity is competitiveness,” said the Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Amer Kapetanović, during the ministerial discussion of the Forum, directed by Stephen Stenning, Director of the Culture in Action program at the British Council.
Kapetanović emphasized that the region does not lack creative talent, underlining: “We do not lack creativity; we lack a system of industry. We don’t lack talent; we lack scale. And we’re not short of stories; we lack the platforms needed to transform those stories into sustainable economic value. Each Western Balkan economy is small on its own, but together we can create the regional scale that creative businesses need.“
The RCC Secretary General also called for the creative industries to be more closely integrated into the Common Regional Market, the European Union’s Growth Plan and the wider regional competitiveness agenda, and concluded: “The creative economy encompasses services, exports, tourism, innovation, small business development, skills, youth employment and regional branding. It must be at the heart of our competitiveness agenda, not on its periphery. The industry will provide the creativity. Our job is to build the structure, scale and access to markets around it.”
