(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General HE Edwin W Carrington has charged the newly established Regional Task Force on Cultural Industries to recommend cutting edge ideas and approaches that would guarantee sustainability in Caribbean Cultural Industries and to adopt a coordinated regional approach that would build on, energise and promote the development of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

The CARICOM Secretary-General who was speaking at the Launch and Inaugural Meeting of the Regional Task Force on Cultural Industries on Thursday, 23 October, 2008 told members of the Task Force “not to rehash what has been done before, but to make recommendations for actions on the part of our Member States to provide cultural entrepreneurs and artists in this region with the incentives, the financial support, the policies and the legislation necessary to enable to the sector to grow and thrive.”

“We need cutting edge ideas and approaches from this Task Force, that will launch many more success stories in music, art, craft, dance, literature, fashion, film and theatre. We need to ensure that new talent and new innovations are constantly encouraged and developed,” the Secretary-General stated.

The Regional Task Force on Cultural Industries was mandated by the Second Joint Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) which met in Georgetown in January 2008 to prepare a Regional Development Strategy and Action Plan that would address, among other things, recommendations on: approaches to providing relief from tariff and other duties and charges on products that are inputs to cultural industries; the reduction or elimination of tariffs and Other Duties and Charges (ODCs) on products that are inputs for cultural industries; the sensitisation of the public of the potential of this sector; and classification issues relating to cultural products.

In commenting on its importance of the first meeting of the Task Force, the CARICOM Secretary-General said it was a timely response to the persistent call by artists and cultural entrepreneurs in the Region, for their governments to address the developmental needs of cultural industries which he described as an innovative sector.

The twenty-member Task Force brings together representatives from the cultural industries; government representatives in culture, trade and finance; educational institutions and the private financial sector; and representatives of regional organizations including the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat, Caribbean Export, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and the CARICOM Secretariat.

The Task Force is Co-Chaired by Messrs Adrian Augier, a poet and producer of the Saint Lucia Arts Festival Company and Sydney Bartley, Principal Director Culture and Entertainment, Jamaica. The other members include Government Representatives: Stanley Sidoel, Suriname; Calixte Leon, Saint Lucia; Ms Cherry Gordon, Jamaica; seven Industry representatives: Lennie Littlewhite, Allison Demas, Lloyd Stanbury, Antonio Rudder, Elfrieda Bissember and Ian Randle; Regional Institutions Representatives: Norris Breedy, Timothy Odle, Dr Hilary Brown; David Hales, Natallie Rochester, Tonika Sealy and the OECS representative yet to be named; one Private Sector Representative: Carmen Gomez-Trigg, and Dr Keith Nurse, representing the Research and Training Sector.

The Task Force will convene its inaugural Meeting on Thursday and Friday, 23-24 October, 2008.