Hamilton: Creative industries an afterthought

Pamela Coke-Hamilton, Executive Director, Caribbean Export Development Agency, maintains that even though one of the new trends we are seeing in the services industry is the creative industries, one of the major problems is that they are seen as an afterthought.

Speaking to the media last week at the Radisson Aquatica Resort, she explained, “One of the major problems we found is that the creative agencies continue to be treated as an afterthought by many of our policy makers and political heads. We don’t think about it as a policy objective, we think about it as something that comes naturally, and because of that, we have not really had an overarching policy dynamic that governs the way we engage the creative industries.

“Therefore, one of the things we will be looking at doing is looking at the export value of our music, the issue of intellectual property, and the values that come through intellectual property and branding, which has not really occurred in our region.

“We talk about it in generic terms, we use anecdotal evidence, but we don’t have the numbers and data that drives our policy imperative, and that will be critical moving forward.”

In the short-term, we are seeing developments: “The Barbados Cultural Industries Bill; Trinidad has created a creative centre, where they have merged all of their organisations that deal with the creative industries; Jamaica has also been working on their creative industries...

“Therefore, what they are trying to do is put in place the policy and regulatory framework to begin to engage in a more strategic manner the creative industries. Also, linking sectors together is a major drive. For example, we are doing a major thrust on CALABASH, which is a literary forum, but we will link art and literature.”

Barbados Minister of Foreign Affairs & Trade, Senator the Hon. Maxine P.O McClean, outlined, “In Barbados, we want to ensure we have the regulatory framework to facilitate entrepreneurs. We are talking about moving from operating in a domestic place to competing in the European Union.

“In Barbados, we had EPA implementation units that would be engaging in workshops aimed to discuss opportunities to provide technical assistance etc.

“It is about our business persons feeling comfortable to pursue these opportunities. It takes time, because you are talking about competing in a different competitive space, and, however, we are seeing a number of persons taking advantage.”

Economic branding

Mikael Barfod, Head of European Union Delegation to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean States, believes “linking creative industries and economic branding is extremely important, and enormous benefits can be reaped from that”.

“I do believe that the EPA is beginning to take off and it is making progress, but it is a long-term process; it is not just something you can measure in terms of market access to the European Union. It is very much about regional integration, regional liberalisation, and within the service sectors, we the private sector to take advantage of the new facilities.” (NB)