Saint Petersburg

Number of CCI support organizations: ~ 60
Global creativity index – GCI, country level: 0.579 (2015)

Considered Russia’s most culturally diverse city, St Petersburg is home to a unique assembly of classical museums, theatres, and palaces. The city historical center and its palace suburbs are Russia's first UNESCO world heritage site. It’s also widely considered as the hip capital of Russia with endless experimental bars and creative quarters.

Today, Saint Petersburg’s respected universities and large IT companies, world-known cultural institutions and huge empty industrial buildings make for a thriving creative sector, though the city is criticized for its conservatism. Many projects and startups treat Saint Petersburg as a testing ground before moving to Moscow, where the money and open-minded investors are concentrated. Fashion is a burgeoning market in St. Petersburg and is currently in a state of adolescence.

Information according to the The Saint Petersburg City Passport:
Today the city can offer its guests to visit 8 500 thousand cultural heritage objects, including 4,2 thousand objects of cultural heritage of Federal importance, which is almost 10% of all monuments protected by the state on the territory of the Russian Federation. That is why Saint Petersburg is called an open-air Museum.

There are more than 250 scientific institutions here and around 70 universities, 71 vocational training institutions, music and art schools.

Around 800 festivals are organized every year, the city hosts a large number of international art festivals, music and theater festivals, competitions and premieres.

More than 60 creative spaces with a total area of over 300 thousand square meters, in which 500 residents are located. St Petersburg is rapidly becoming the center of creative workshops and independent art spaces.

According to a study by the Cinema Foundation, in 2017, the total sales volume of Russian cinema content to foreign markets in 2017 amounted to about 1.2 billion rubles. In recent years, the domestic digital content education industry has experienced a boom: film production, animation, film series, IT applications, VR / AR technologies, and the development of computer games. Russian products in these areas of creative industries have a good demand in foreign markets.

There are three main governmental support strategies for CCI secror:

Strategy of the socio-economic development of Saint Petersburg for 2035: The strategy-is based on strategic resources of Saint Petersburg - rich cultural heritage and the worldwide reputation of the city, diversified economy and extensive scientific potential, the advantageous geographical position and, the key point is citizens with the high standards of education and culture. The main focus is on the technological breakthrough, creation of a comfortable environment, openness to new ideas and skills.

Strategy of economic and social development of Saint Petersburg until 2030. Creative industries are identified among the key priorities within the Strategy.

State programme “Development of Culture Sector in Saint-Petersburg”: Objective of the programme: achievement of harmonious development of a personality based on historical and cultural diversity of St. Petersburg including the following items:

• Preservation, development and promotion of cultural and historical heritage of
• St. Petersburg;
• Preservation and development of professional art, support of creative activity variety in
• St. Petersburg;
• Image making of culture as a main competitive advantage.

Support from the government is also expressed in the preferential provision of buildings that are owned by the city, to accommodate creative spaces and creative industries. This is done either by a lease agreement or through a concession agreement.

Professionals are organized in various unions and there are many associations throughout all sectors, working for the improvements of their respective sectors (professional development, intellectual property rights; social security improvements).

The legislation regarding creative spaces has been amended in 2018 to strengthen the favorable investment climate of Saint Petersburg, ensure the involvement of unprofitable real estate objects in the economic turnover and promote the involvement of small and medium-sized businesses and large corporations in the development of creative clusters.
Smolny decree, according to which urban premises leased by business can no longer be rented of May, 30 2018 favours creative spaces, allowing them to continue the practice of sublease agreements. The new generation of entrepreneurial, dynamic cultural players have started to redefine St Petersburg creative and cultural identity. New cultural spaces have developed in former industrial areas, including several successful clusters and hubs (Lenpoligraphmash creative tech-cluster, ARTPLAY Design Centre, Golitsyn Loft, Cultural and Business Port - Sevcabel Port, Lumiere Hall creative space, Art space Fligel, "Охта Lab", Berthold Centre, Loft Project ETAGI, PALMA Art Space, Creative cluster ArtMuza), FREEDOM Art Space, Art space “New Holland”, Benois House, Creative space Tkachi, “Igri Razuma” intellectual cluster, etc.)

The possible growth points and difficulties of developing a creative economy that currently exist:

• At the state level, the creative sector does not receive sufficient investment from the Federal and regional authorities. Preference is given to more traditional areas of production, which does not allow the formation of targeted programs to support creative enterprises.
• Lack of sustainable communication both within the creative community itself, and between representatives of creative industries, government officials and the business community;
• The education system does not provide sufficient number of professional and competitive personnel and does not allow existing specialists to improve their skills and competencies
• Lack of knowledge and skills in business and marketing;
• Knowledge gaps about creative sector performance and its contribution to support policymakers in evidence-based policy development and decision-making
• Due to the creative sector’s high risk and its lack of tangible assets that can serve as collateral, it is very hard for cultural enterprises to obtain loans and other services from banks,
• Creative enterprise development is hampered not only by lack of capital, but also by a lack of human capacities, technical, entrepreneurial and leadership skills as well as up-to-date digital training
• High level of shadow creative activities, many creative entrepreneurs operate “off the books”, low added value, over-dependence on foreign firms and essential copyright infringement
• Limits of domestic markets for cultural goods and services,
• Lack of intellectual property protection as a barrier to creative-economy growth, creative economy development requires a functioning system of intellectual property rights

1. _{Draft of the Law on the Federal Budget of the Russian Federation for 2012-2014.}
2. _{Official website of Saint Petersburg administrartion https://www.gov.spb.ru/gov/otrasl/invest/news/128301/}
3. _{The Calvert Journal}
4. _{Saint Petersburg City Passport, Committee for External Relations of Saint-Petersburg 2017}
5. _{A place for creativity. Creative spaces. "Investment Forum". / KOMMERSANT BUSINESS guide / Appendix №208 from 09.11.2017, стр. 20. https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/3459787}
6. _{Р а с п о р я ж е н и е  от 31.05.2018 №64-р О внесении изменений в распоряжение Комитета по управлению городским имуществом от 22.01.2008 №16-р, распоряжение Комитета имущественных отношений Санкт-Петербурга от 30.10.2015}
7. _{Analytical Center for the Government of the Russian Federation - Education and the Creative Industry in International and Domestic Practices}
8. _{UNCTAD Creative Economy Outlook Country Profiles 2018 Report}
9. _{Strategy of economic and social development of Saint Petersburg until 2030 (adopted in 2015) http://spbtpp.ru/en/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/12/Strategy-2030.pdf}
10. _{Creative Industries in the Modern City. Encouraging Enterprise and Creativity in Saint Petersburg. Saint Petersburg, Helsinki, Manchester, 2002.,http://www.creative.leontief.net/data/Creative_en.pdf}