The Shanghai Trajectory and the Rise of Saudi Arabia's Cultural Economy

Culture is rapidly emerging as one of the most dynamic drivers of economic transformation. Around the world, governments are discovering that investment in creativity and experience design can yield returns comparable to traditional sectors - stimulating innovation, attracting capital, and strengthening national influence.

Shanghai offers a compelling case study in how cultural programming can evolve into national economic infrastructure. Over the past decade, the city has re-engineered its cultural economy around integration - linking events, investment zones, and innovation clusters into one continuous ecosystem.

Key mechanisms define this model:

1. Policy Integration - Every cultural platform is tied to macroeconomic priorities: industrial innovation, trade, and cultural diplomacy.
2. Industrial Spillover - Arts festivals and expos are connected to business forums and trade flows, ensuring that creative expression drives measurable commercial outcomes.
3. Cultural Intelligence Infrastructure - Dedicated PMOs track not just attendance, but the creation of IP, startups, and exports. Data flows directly into policy formulation.

Through this alignment, Shanghai turned culture into a renewable growth engine, not a seasonal spectacle - an approach that resonates deeply with Saudi Arabia's current transition.

Evolution in Phases:

This progression reflects China's shift from cultural diplomacy to cultural economics-positioning creativity as a measurable contributor to national productivity.

Each phase reinforced the previous, gradually moving from one-off events to a self-sustaining creative-industry ecosystem.

Policy Integration as Economic Infrastructure

Shanghai's system rests on three interlocking layers:

1. Regulatory Embedding – Each event is mandated to align with national development goals: industrial upgrading, digital economy, and soft-power export.
2. Institutional Architecture – Dedicated coordination units connect ministries, investment funds, and private sector partners within a unified governance framework to ensure that major events evolve into long-term economic ecosystems.
3. Measurement Logic – Success is assessed via contribution to GDP, IP generation, SME formation, and export growth-not attendance numbers.

This three-layer design converts temporary activity into structural economic assets.

Data and Funding Architecture

• Data Hubs: Real-time analytics track cultural spending, visitor engagement, and SME performance.
• Funding Streams: Government seed funding transitions into venture co-funding and corporate sponsorships.
• Knowledge Transfer: Partnerships with universities and innovation parks ensure research outputs inform commercial projects.

This integration enables culture to operate as a renewable capital system-reinvesting creative outcomes into the broader economy.

Comparative Lens: Saudi Arabia's Post-CIC Moment

Structural Similarities

The Combined Impact

Together, PPPs and IP frameworks form the core infrastructure of a mature cultural economy-one capable of transforming creative potential into systemic, measurable growth. They are the architecture behind Vision 2030's next horizon: a Saudi economy where culture performs as capital and every creative act contributes to long-term national value.

The Opportunity Landscape

Saudi Arabia's creative-economy growth trajectory indicates five immediate opportunities for replication and adaptation:

1. Cultural Special Economic Zones (C-SEZs) – integrating creative clusters with logistics and digital trade.
2. Integrated Event PMOs – transforming flagship events into legacy institutions with annualized economic targets.
3. Creative Export Frameworks – aligned with the new Guide for Importing and Exporting Cultural Products and Services announced at CIC.
4. Impact Investment Vehicles – channeling private capital into cultural IP through performance-linked returns.
5. Cross-Border Creative Corridors – structured partnerships (like Toada's MoU) bridging East-West innovation pipelines.

The Saudi–China Bridge: From Cultural Diplomacy to Economic Infrastructure

The 2025 Shanghai International MCN Conference marked a defining moment in Saudi Arabia's emergence as a global creative powerhouse. Held on June 5–6 at the Shanghai Convention and Exhibition Center, the forum convened over 100 industry leaders, 150 global brands, and 50 top-tier MCN agencies to explore the intersection of culture, commerce, and digital innovation.

Among the key participants were Toada Consulting and BOP Consulting. Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 transformation took center stage in the dedicated session "KSA–China Culture, Tourism & Commerce Forum," highlighting the Kingdom's accelerating progress in cultural investment, creative industries, and immersive technology.

At the conference, Toada Consulting, BOP Consulting (UK), CCPIT Shanghai (China Council for the Promotion of International Trade), and Illuthion formalized their collaboration through a Memorandum of Understanding. The MoU represents a strategic leap - turning cultural diplomacy into an economic infrastructure platform that connects Saudi Arabia's creative industries with Asia's most advanced digital commerce and MCN networks.

What began as diplomacy is now functioning as a new export model for Saudi creativity - an evolving ecosystem that monetizes narrative, amplifies identity, and accelerates diversification.

The Strategic Lesson: Designing Cultural Capital Systems

The Shanghai Trajectory highlights what Saudi Arabia is now poised to do next: create cultural capital systems - frameworks where artistic expression, creative enterprise, and national policy operate as one synchronized economy.

This requires three imperatives:

• From Activation to Governance - Institutionalize legacy PMOs and embed "impact dashboards" into every event and initiative.
• From Narrative to IP - Treat cultural storytelling as a pipeline for proprietary products, brands, and exportable formats.
• From Policy to Platform - Build cross-sector alliances that convert regulatory readiness into investment flow.

Through its Unified Experience Development Lifecycle (link to our services) and PMO-as-a-Service model, Toada enables this translation: transforming culture from inspiration into infrastructure, and events into enduring economic systems.