Beirut, June 9, 2009: In its effort to revive the private sector, Cisco, partnered with the Professional Computer Association of Lebanon (PCA), to explore the potential of Lebanon to become a leading creative cluster. The creative sector has the potential to play a major role in the economy and is continuously contributing to the economic competitiveness of Lebanon. The creative sector is of primary importance and focus in the cluster initiative. Establishing a coordinated and sustained approach that can support the growth and development of this sector is key. This initiative brings together leading creative industries in Lebanon defined as: broadcast, advertising, film, creative writing, design, fashion, architecture, passing through digital media, music composition/production, publishing and poetry. The main goal of the cluster initiative is to find ways to utilize Lebanon’s strengths and revolutionize it into becoming the creative hub for the Middle East and the rest of the world by overcoming current barriers to success. The five core creative industries that the Lebanon Creative Cluster will emphasize on are: advertising, publishing, digital media, broadcasting and film. The rational behind that, is that these industries rely on a major technology component. With that objective in mind, renowned British creative consultant Tom Fleming, was invited to conduct research and consultation visits with pioneering Lebanese creative professionals as well as a series of workshops and meetings. January 2009: Consultation visits to leading creative figures helped Fleming build a strong relationship with the sector and a sharp awareness of the sector as well as supported him in developing a baseline for the workshops to follow. February 2009: A workshop took place during which Fleming introduced various topics of discussion aimed to understand, in more depth, the specific dynamics of the creative sector in Lebanon. June 2009: Eighty Lebanese creative thinkers representing various industries participated in the second series of workshops. They collectively explored how the creative sector can be supported to grow, become more competitive and add value across the economy. All discussions centered around four priorities, these are: Developing Capacity, The Support Landscape, Access to Capital, and Market Shaping & Market Making. Developing Capacity focuses on establishing a specialized workforce, while The Support Landscape promotes business productivity. Access to Capital encourages investment opportunities (for the company) and investment readiness (of the company) and the Market Shaping & Making component targets expanding the business existing markets. Ideas and recommendations shared were gathered from all participants. Cisco and the PCA will be working for the next few months on incorporating those into a framework that will be shared with the public. Cisco’s Creative Cluster initiative comes inline with its contribution to the Partnership for Lebanon that started in 2006 with the objective of helping the Lebanese people find the path to stability and long term economic growth. The leaders of this partnership are Cisco, Microsoft, Intel, GHAFARI Inc., and Occidental Petroleum Corporation.