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Innovation can emanate from a creative worker, a community leader, a business person, an artist, a public servant or a scientist, etc. Innovation can respond to a specific problem, reduce risks, anticipate challenges, result in new products or process, or harness existing or emerging opportunities. For the purposes of urban prosperity, innovation has a clear role in improved conditions for populations and the way they live, work, move, relax and more generally make the most of the urban advantage.

If its existing creative capital is to be enhanced, or activated where dormant, a city should become a locus where sociocultural diversity can be staged,

and where links can flourish among both individuals and institutions. In practice, all of this requires well-adapted physical environments, which in turn have to do with urbanization economies9 _{and better urban planning. From} a more institutional point of view, support to knowledge exchange and networking is another way of stimulating creative capital, along with favourable conditions for research and development. As for the productive sector, creative stimulation can also derive from economies of agglomeration and an entrepreneur-friendly environment.

It may come as no surprise that in Asia, most local experts saw a strong link between research and development (R&D), on the one hand, and enhanced prosperity on the other, with public authorities and other stakeholders playing significant roles in the areas of business, industry and technology.

This was the case in Singapore, Hyderabad and Bangalore (India), Shenzhen and Chongqing (China), Gaziantep (Turkey) and Cebu (the Philippines). In Singapore, gross expenditure on R&D increased from 1.9 per cent in 1990 to 2.8 per cent 2008 and three per cent in 201010_{, with the focus on applied research,} technology, sustainable urban living and ‘clean’ energy.11 In Bangalore, the emergence of the city as a knowledge hub is a visible impact of policy, entrepreneurship and innovation. With more than 66 engineering colleges and 55 polytechnics, the city has developed as a centre for scientific innovation, research in aeronautics and electronics with strong public research facilities.12 _{Biotechnologies} and computer/communications also feature highly in Hyderabad, India’s pharmaceutical capital, with support from central government and more than 40 research and educational institutions.13 _{Shenzhen has developed} an endogenous innovation strategy led by the state with investments from government agencies, industries and universities. In few years,

the city has developed a high-tech, modern service industry, actively promoting industrial transformation and upgrade, focusing on electronics, biological engineering and new material technology. The city has also made important innovations in the service industry (finance, logistics and

Measuring Innovation and Creativity

In 2000 a “Creative City Index” was developed to measure ‘the imaginative pulse of cities’, combining a variety of indicators ranging from political and public frameworks, diversity, vitality and expression, openness and tolerance, entrepreneurship, vision, liveability, learning and professionalism, among 10 specific dimensions. In 2007, Melbourne-based “2thinkNow” developed an “Innovation Cities Program” along with an “Innovation Cities Index” in a bid to enhance understanding of the links between innovation and the way cities operate. The measure also uses a large variety of indicators, involving cultural assets, infrastructure and networked markets in areas such as commerce, finance, food, the arts, health, technology, religion, the media, etc. On this basis, cities are classified in five categories: ‘nexus’ (cities featuring critical innovations),’hub’ (cities that are influential in key areas), ‘node’ (cities combining broad- ranging performance and imbalances), ‘influencer’ (cities that are competitive but unbalanced on the whole), and ‘upstart’ (cities with potential for future performance).

Source: UN-Habitat (2012) Decentralization in Iraq: Challenges and Solutions for Federal and Local Governments, Nairobi: UN-Habitat

Box 3.2.1

POLICy

‘hardware’ factors – infrastructure and technology – and ‘software’ factors (including mind-set, dynamics of place, the connection between thinkers and doers, and a change-friendly environment).7

POLICy

creativity must be embedded in the way cities operate.8

FACT

survey shows that five main factors are at play when cities innovate: innovative urban management, entrepreneurial capacity, the promotion of arts and culture, the emergence of industrial clusters, and research and development (R&D).

Singapore: an innovative bronze sculpture of five boys jumping into the river for a swim, by local sculptor Chong Fah Cheong, installed at the Open Air Interpretive Centre along the Singapore River serves to remind viewers of the essential freedoms that underpin a vital and prosperous city.

culture) as a way to drive economic growth and prosperity.14 _{Still in China,} Chongqing has utilized a state-led investment to stimulate the economy and improve social welfare by optimizing endogenous development through research and technology. Chongqing strategy “Three Centers, Two Hubs, and One Base” connects business, finance and education with a strong support of infrastructure, communication and a modern base of high- tech industry.15 _{In southeast Turkey, Gaziantep – one of} the oldest inhabited cities in the world – has deliberately embraced R&D and innovation, with various educational institutions explicitly supporting entrepreneurship. Business has cooperated with public authorities to launch a number of initiatives known as Trademark City, Smart Industry, Teknopark, Innovation Valley and R&D Movement to

open up markets, diversify the economy and promote employment in the search of prosperity.16

With the exception of South Africa and Brazil, which recorded the highest expenditure on R&D as a percentage of GDP in their respective regions (around 1 per cent in 2008), the Latin America region and the Sub-Saharan Africa had an average expenditure of about 0.6 per cent. In some African countries such as Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Zambia, among many others, this expenditure was under 0.4 per cent.17

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