From Barbados Advocate

The task of establishing the Caribbean Creative Industries sector and of building a system to guarantee its success and sustainability requires the full support of all stakeholders.

This was the position coming from Heather Clarke, Registrar of the Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property Office at the Association of Caribbean Copyright Societies (ACCS) conference at the Barbados Beach Club last week.

She said that while the provision of resources , including incentives to our creators , as well as the training of our enforcement and judicial officials remain critical to the sustainability of the sector, other things must be done.

“It is evident that as a region and as a jurisdiction, our major task in the continued growth of the sector must rest quite strongly on the success of our activities which are geared towards awareness building and respect for our creators as professionals and for their creations as well as our rights holders,” Ms. Clarke said.

“This I believe will continue to be our greatest challenge. This challenge sends out a signal call not only to our Regional intellectual Property Offices but our Collective Management Organisations such as the ACCS and our own COSCAP which continue to represent the interest of their membership at all levels, particularly in the current economic environment,” she outlined.

According to Clarke, “The Government of Barbados with the assistance of the World Intellectual Property Organisation has formulated a national intellectual property strategic plan with the objective of making our economy more competitive globally.”

The official maintained that such competiveness can only be achieved through creativity, productivity and innovation in the economic, cultural and social sectors.

Proposals for the implementation of certain aspects of that National Plan have been submitted and are under consideration.

In acknowledgement of the significant role of the creative industries sector to our economies , the Government of Barbados has implemented several initiatives for the development and the repositioning of the cultural industries as a viable and sustainable sector of the economy . “Such support is evidence by policy changes , the provision of grants , incentives , and the provision of funding for cultural projects and cultural entertainment, duty free concessions as well as the provisions of grants for our creative and cultural practitioners. Support for these initiatives can be found in the enabling legislation , the Cultural Industries Development Act of 2013 and work is ongoing for the establishment of an Authority to sustain , regulate and facilitate the development of our cultural industries.”

She acknowledged , “The emergence and continued growth of the creative industries as a viable economic sector has been accompanied by changes and developments particularly with the last 10 to 15 years.Such changes and developments, she noted, have been primarily in the field of copyright and related rights and include the development of new norms at the international level.

These, Clarke further stated, have created a variety of challenges for our key stakeholders in particular, our authors, rights holders and collective management societies.

“In responding to the changing environment , the Government of Barbados is also committed to strengthening the regulatory framework in order to facilitate the growth and sustainable development of the sector . In this regard , work is currently being undertaken by the Department of Corporate Affairs and Intellectual Property which is a ministerial appointed body,” Clarke added.(NB).

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http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=business&NewsID=37527

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