Call to invest in creative industries

Culture, creative and technology industries are drivers of economic prosperity and the Alliance for Progress Party (APP) has committed to treating them with the respect they deserve but which the party claims have been lacking.

This pledge was made by deputy political leader Lynette Eastmond, who during Tuesday evening’s presentation of that party’s slate of candidates for the upcoming General Election, promised to build out these sectors with real investment.

Eastmond, a founding member and former president of the Barbados Film and Video Association, said that for too long governments have treated these industries like an ugly duckling, which they would only turn to on special occasions like Independence Day “picking a few people to perform” or call up a filmmaker to have their film added to a slot on television “often for free”.

“That is not an industry,” Eastmond lamented. “An industry requires structure.”

A former Minister of International Business in the Owen Arthur administration, Eastmond maintained that building out such industries is possible but with structure and investment and she highlighted her former ministry as a prime example.

“We did this already when we built the International Business sector. Everybody understood it had to be structured, there was specific legislation that was put in place to support it, there was money put to promote it, individuals were trained, government invested in promotion and marketing, engaged specific areas within the civil service to make sure that those particular departments supported the export of our international business sector,” Eastmond said.

“It should be an easy sell because we already have people in these industries.

It is not like the medicinal marijuana industry that we know nothing about, that is growing marijuana for medicinal purposes to sell to a particular market with various standards. We already have individuals in Barbados who are good at . . . music, film, fashion. There are individuals who have already sold their work abroad, there are individuals who have had their film screened from the United States to Canada to the UK to Canada. We have had songs that made it big in the region and throughout the world. . . . There are already Barbadians quietly working for software development companies. Why is it that no government would invest in an industry? Eastmond, who is vying for the St.
Philip West seat believes that if a mere one per cent of what is allocated to tourism is diverted to start these industries, Barbados would see a massive difference across every demographic – social, economic and otherwise. (KC)