18. Creative Economy and Competitiveness: Case of Ukraine

The Europe 2020 strategy bases the future development of the EU on smart, sustainable growth fostering social inclusion. One of its dimensions concerns the creative economy concept. Creativity comes from the combination of ability and environment. It relates to the capacity of people to think with imagination and challenge the existing. Creativity and science become twins in the aspect of impacting the future economy development. The cultural and creative industries are important drivers of economic and social innovation in other sectors according to the European Commission agenda “An Integrated Industrial Policy for the Globalization Era – Putting Competitiveness and Sustainability at Centre Stage” (2011). The article deals with the essence of creative industries and their state of formation and development in Ukraine with exact examples. This research examines the role of the creative approach to business activity and economic development in general. First, the difference between creativity and innovation has been described. Second, foundations of creative thinking have been discussed in details. The authors attempted to analyze the connection between global competitiveness, levels of development, and the creativity index. The coefficient of rank correlation may be considered as a reliable one. In this manner, there is a connection between Countries’ Creativity Index and the Global Competitive Index.