Former Jamaica PM urges new development pathways for Region
Former Prime Minister of Jamaica Hon. P.J. Patterson said there was an urgent need for CARICOM Member States to discover new development pathways that encourage creativity and innovation in the pursuit of inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth and development.
Mr. Patterson was giving a presentation to Regional Leaders at the two-day 26th Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) which began in The Bahamas on Thursday.
Further reliance on commodities such as sugar, rice and bananas in order to maintain and also to lift living standards and to encourage economic growth is becoming hazardous, for primary commodities are the most stagnant sector in the growth of world trade”, Mr. Patterson stated.
He said it was necessary to increase the linkages with other sectors of the CARICOM economies such as cultural and sporting industries to maximize benefits.
The former Prime Minster said several Caribbean countries had demonstrated their comparative advantage in various cultural industries and had gained significant international recognition for cultural expressions, products and services. He said that that was where leverage points for building competitiveness existed.
Mr. Patterson noted that in developing the cultural sector, tremendous social and economic benefits were derived. He said further that it had also long been acknowledged that sports, especially cricket, football, netball and track and field represented fertile ground for Caribbean integration. He said thinking in relation to these sporting activities needed to expand to the value of broadcasting rights, content production, merchandising, events production and other associated activities that required creative input to yield the value added.
Our Region has to invest in gathering the necessary data to support our cultural and creative industries policy development policies and programmes, or else we will continue to ‘shoot in the dark’ strategically,” said the former Prime Minister.
Speech PJ Patterson – CARICOM -26th Inter-Sessional Meeting Feby 26-27 doc 2