The Entertainment Sector in CARICOM: Key challenges and Proposals for Action

Although small in terms of population, the Caribbean is renowned for its creativity. Its cultural diversity is manifested in a variety of artistic expressions including folklore, crafts, performances, music festivals, and carnivals. Despite the Caribbean's great potential in the entertainment sector, important domestic challenges - emanating from both public and private sectors - have long impeded the successful growth of creative industries. The paper explains how the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union should serve as an impetus for stakeholders in the region to address these barriers thereby creating favorable conditions for the production and export of Caribbean entertainment services. This Study presents an overview of policies in the creative sector in terms of the promotion of services exports in selected CARICOM states: Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. This Technical Note highlights bottlenecks to implementation of recommendations proposed in existing analyses and diagnostics and suggests specific ways in which these can be overcome. It formulates concrete recommendations for relevant actors, including donors and domestic governments, to promote the development of the creative industries.