Culture as an Export Forum

Traditionally we think of culture as arts and crafts, festivals, dance, literature, movies, music, fashion, food, and even healing. Some of the prolific cultural exports include categories and brands that we often encounter: Bollywood, Hollywood, K-Pop, Ralph Lauren, Armani, Manipur sarees, McDonald’s, pizza, sushi, Scotch whiskey, Guinness, Dubai Expo, Olympics, Russian ballet, Chinese acupuncture--and the list goes on. Have you wondered how big these exports are for the producing countries?

Fortunately, there is a growing group of businesses from Sri Lanka such as Spa Ceylon, Galle Lit Fest, Ministry of Crab, Channa and Upuli dance, Buddhi Batiks, and Bathiya and Santush concerts, that highlight Sri Lankan culture as a key differentiator in reaching export markets. In fact, we see this category as a higher value-added layer—above the export of raw crops and unskilled labor, above the export of value-added crops, trained labor, garments and above specialized exports such as IT services, advanced manufacturing or tourism.

What do these businesses have in common? How do we define them? What can we learn from countries that have effectively developed culture as an export? And, in a world connected digitally how can your business leverage culture to grow your exports?

Please join the panelists Ms. Giselle Harding (Galle Lit Fest), Ms. Shehara de Silva (John Keells), Mr. Anushka Wijesinha (Economist), and Mr. Shalin Balasuriya (Spa Ceylon) moderated by Asanka de Mel (LOVI) as we explore Culture as an Export