RAWALPINDI, April 26: The world exports of design goods nearly doubled from $119.7 billion to $218.2 billion from 1996 to 2005, says a new report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

According to the “Creative Economy Report 2008” released on Friday, the share of design products in total exports of creative goods remained stable at about 50 per cent.

When ranking the share of exports by design items in 2005, interior products were first with nearly 20 per cent, followed by fashion items 18 per cent, jewellery 11 per cent and toys 9 per cent.

Design was found to be the leading subgroup in the world market for creative goods. The global market for these goods reached $218.1 billion in 2005, accounting for nearly half of total world exports of creative goods.

Nowadays, the fashion industry covers a wide range of fashionable products, including perfume, jewellery and accessories such as scarves, purses and belts.

The inclusion of design as a creative industry has completely changed the position of key players in the world market for creative goods and services. China and Italy became leading exporters of creative-industry products.

During the decade under review, exports of design products from developed economies and their share in world markets indicated contrasting trends. While the value of exports of design products increased from $76.7 billion to $112.6 billion, the market penetration of their products decreased from 64 per cent in 1996 to 52 per cent in 2005.

Design is the second largest creative subgroup for developing countries after arts and crafts. The total value of their exports of design products increased considerably from $43 billion to $102 billion as did their share in world markets, reaching 47 per cent in 2005. In 2005, the design items with the greatest market penetration were toys (64 per cent), fashion (50 per cent) and jewellery (46 per cent).

Exports of interior objects rose sharply from 19 per cent in 1996 to 40 per cent in 2005; exports of glassware in particular doubled from 14 per cent in 1996 to 28.8 per cent in 2005. Graphic design and decoration products gained considerable market share in ten years, increasing from 10 per cent in 1996 to 30 per cent in 2005. Exports of design goods from the economies in transition totalled $1.7 billion, representing less than 1 per cent of world exports of creative goods in 2005.

Today, the originality of ethnic textiles combined with the eccentricity and diversity of works by fashion designers from developing countries is conquering world markets.

In this respect, developing economies are called upon to better explore trade opportunities in world markets in light of the new scenario of liberalized markets for textiles and clothing post-Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA).

A picture of the leading exporters of design goods among developing economies highlights China. The scale of production and the level of exports of design goods from China are very high, says the report.