Baku has been included in the UNESCO’s Creative Cities Network

On the occasion of World Cities’ Day, celebrated on 31 October, UNESCO was designating 66 urban settlements from 48 countries that are to join the Organization’s Network of Creative Cities.

The UNESCO Creative Cities Network (UCCN) was created in 2004 to promote the cooperation with and among cities that have identified creativity as a strategic factor for sustainable urban development. The Network, placing creativity and cultural industries at the heart of their development, plans at the local level and cooperates actively at the international level. UCCN brings together cities that base their development on creativity, whether in music, crafts and folk arts, design, cinema, literature, digital arts or gastronomy.

By joining the Network, cities commit to share their best practices and develop the partnerships involving the public and private sectors as well as civil society.

There was prepared the file, concentrating on the fact, that Baku as the city of the great importance in economic and cultural aspects, has significant natural, cultural and historical heritage and has been for decades the center of creativity in the region. Then the city, making the creativity the fastest growing sector of the non-oil economy, became a center of innovative projects and start-ups in the field of design.

In the file, it was also mentioned, that as a part of UCCN Network Baku will develop the opportunities for creators, working in the different fields of design, improve the opportunities for creators at different levels and foster job creation, support the production, distribution and dissemination of goods and services in design, strengthen the synergies with other fields of creativity, covered by the Network, such as crafts and folk arts, as well as gastronomy and music, enhance the cooperation among the cities that have recognized design and other areas of creativity as important factor of the urban development.

As a result, the Director General of UNESCO has decided to designate Baku as a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in the field of Design.

It should be noted, that the total number of Creative Cities is 246, including another Azerbaijani city - Sheki in the field of “Crafts and folk arts” since 2017.