Greater Georgetown, Guyana – The relentless call for coordinated national and regional action to address the developmental needs of a growing cultural industry within the Caribbean Community has not fallen on deaf ears. When the Regional Culture Committee (RCC) meets for its Nineteenth conference in Guyana on Wednesday, April 23, it will discuss the development of a Regional Policy Framework on Cultural Industries and identify the elements to be included in such a framework.
According to Dr Hilary Brown, Programme Manager for Culture and Community Development at the CARICOM Secretariat, the areas to be addressed in the policy include “the development of an appropriate package of incentives for the sector; improving data collection; building institutional capacity with emphasis on business support services; strengthening intellectual property protection and collective management as well as developing the requisite human resources with emphasis on training and training facilities for cultural workers.”
With respect to an incentive package for the cultural sector, both the Sixteenth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development and the Twenty-Third Meeting of Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) at their respective meetings last year, had agreed that a Regional Task Force on Cultural Industries should be established to examine the issue of incentives for the sector and make recommendations on approaches to providing relief from tariffs and other duties and charges on products that are inputs to cultural industries.
Both Meetings had also endorsed recommendations for the Task Force to comprise representatives of national customs departments, cultural departments, finance ministries, trade ministries; spokespersons for the audio-visual, visual arts, music and performing arts industries; the CARICOM Secretariat and the CARICOM Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM).
In light of this, tomorrow’s RCC Meeting is now expected to make recommendations for the composition of, and work programme for the Regional Task Force on Cultural Industries.
The RCC Meeting will also discuss the longstanding issue of the movement of artists and cultural workers, in light of recommendations made at the Sixteenth COHSOD in October last year, to expand the range of artistes and cultural workers eligible for free movement within the CARICOM Single Market. The Meeting is expected to review the list of approved categories and make the necessary modifications to include other categories of cultural workers.
Additionally, the RCC will be required to assist the CARICOM Secretariat in developing in accordance with the Regional Services Sector plan, an additional “Conditional Duty Exemption’ that will allow artists and cultural workers greater concessions to move their tools of trade and creative works within the CSME. The draft document should be presented to the COTED for its consideration. The Joint COTED and COHSOD Meeting which took place in January of this year had acknowledged the difficulties that artists and cultural workers were experiencing in attempting to move their tools and creative works and agreed that they should be considered for duty exemption.
The three-day meeting of the RCC ends on Friday April 25, but not before it treats with other issues such as the status of national cultural policies; the implications for culture in the recently signed CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and the Community’s cultural relations with Latin America, the European Community and international organizations. The Meeting will also review its 2007–2008 culture work programme and discuss the way forward for 2008–2009.
