Draft development strategy report for cultural, creative industry launched

By the end of this year a policy for the framework and development strategy for the cultural and creative industry will be put in place.{{more}}

The final draft report was officially launched here on Thurday, June 3, 2010, at the Ministry of Telecommunications Conference Room, Kingstown.

The document examines and makes recommendations on policy and strategy at the national, regional and international levels on trends in the development of the cultural industries.

It was prepared for the Centre for Enterprise Development’s (CED) Business Gateway Project within a global context.

“In this era where the economic environment is becoming more competitive, developing states must realize their competitive advantages,” said Felix Lewis, CED General Manager to members of the media.

He noted that one of the ways of doing this was by developing policy to differentiate products of trade.

“Countries like ours must make the most of what these sectors (the cultural and creative) have to provide,” Lewis explained.

The sector is identified as one of the fastest growing contributors of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as is the case of Jamaica, where the cultural and creative sectors was the second contributor to the GDP.

Minister of Culture Rene Baptiste said that she welcomed the document.

“For 9 years, I have had to keep saying that it (culture) is an industry,” Baptiste said.

“There has been a lack of recognition of the positive and impactful role of this sector in St Vincent and the Grenadines,” said Baptiste, adding that for too long there has been the constant denial of the economic impact of the cultural sector.

“We have a job to do and it is not just to read the document, but to build the scope and width of the creative and cultural activities because we have narrowed it down in our definition of culture to dance and Carnival,” the Minister contended.

Although the document is a final draft, the next phase of the project will include recommendations with the final outcome to be presented later in the year.