A very warm welcome to you all, to the Twentieth Meeting of the Regional Cultural Committee, on behalf of our Secretary General, His Excellency Mr. Edwin Carrington, and also the Assistant Secretary General for Human and Social Development, Dr. Edward Greene, both of whom have expressed their deep regret that they were unable to be here with us today, and have sent best wishes for a successful Meeting.

I would particularly like to thank the government of Suriname for so graciously hosting this Meeting, and we look forward to the experiencing once more, the usual warm hospitality for which Suriname is well known, just as we enjoyed in 2003 at CARIFESTA VIII. We still have very fond memories of our stay in Suriname for that important event.

This Twentieth Meeting of the Regional Cultural Committee represents an important milestone in the history of this Advisory Body, which has been so instrumental in shaping cultural policy, in infusing the regional culture programme with new ideas, new approaches and new attitudes, and providing advice to Ministers of Culture on the many pressing issues on the Region’s cultural agenda. Since the First Meeting of the RCC, which was held in Port-of-Spain Trinidad and Tobago, on the 6th and 7th June, 1987, the RCC has achieved much, for which it can be justly proud.

The RCC was instrumental in the development of a Regional Cultural Policy which was completed in 1994, and which still serves as a reference document and even a model for cultural policies in some Member States that are still being developed. The RCC lobbied for and provided managerial oversight for the implementation of the European Union funded CARIFORUM Cultural Centres Programme between 1998 and 2004. Through that programme, which was the largest regional project in culture implemented to date, so many lessons were learned about conceptualizing, implementing and managing regional culture projects.

It was also through the initiative of Directors of Culture united in the RCC, that the CARICOM Foundation for Art and Culture was established by Intergovernmental Agreement in 1996 and the CARIFORUM Cultural Support Fund established in 2003.

This Twentieth Meeting of the RCC will focus on redoubling its efforts to find resources to capitalize the CARICOM Foundation for Art and Culture, and for financing culture in general, to ensure a sustainable pool of resources for vitally needed cultural development in this region.

The RCC has and continues to be at the forefront of the call for the restructuring of CARIFESTA, which led to the development of a Strategic Plan for the Festival in 2004, the establishment of an Interim Festival Directorate in 2006, and the gradual introduction of a new business model for the management of this highly valued event. This Twentieth RCC Meeting will review the lessons learned from hosting CARIFESTA X in Guyana in 2008, and plan for the future of the Festival, with an emphasis on generating new revenue streams, enhancing the intellectual property value of the Festival and developing a stronger CARIFESTA brand.

The RCC Meeting will also devote some attention to matters relating to culture and trade, and especially the implementation of the culture provisions of the CARIFORUM/European Union Economic Partnership Agreement, to ensure benefits for artists and cultural workers arising from this new arrangement.

The advocacy of the RCC has contributed to greater attention being paid by governments in the region to the need to develop the cultural industries in CARICOM. The RCC has consistently, over the past 10 years, highlighted, advocated and demonstrated the tremendous untapped potential of these industries that are rooted in the creative genius and talents of the people of the region.

I am pleased to report that a Regional Task Force on Cultural Industries was established in October 2008, with a mandate from the Council for Human and Social Development, and the Council for Trade and Economic Development, to develop a comprehensive Regional Development Strategy and Action Plan for the region’s cultural industries. The Task Force comprises persons with tremendous knowledge and experience from a wide cross-section of relevant sectors, namely Ministries of culture, trade and finance; representatives of the various cultural industries, and representatives of regional organizations, including the OECS Secretariat, Caribbean Export, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), and the CARICOM Secretariat. The body also has representation from educational institutions and the private financial sector.

We are very pleased to have a few Members of the Task Force here with us this morning, having concluded their Second Meeting yesterday. I would like in particular to acknowledge and thank the two Co-Chairs of the Task Force, Mr. Sydney Bartley, Principal Director of Culture from Jamaica – who is very well known to us - and Mr. Adrian Augier, poet, cultural entrepreneur and economist from St. Lucia who regrettably was unable to attend the Meeting.

I would also like to take this opportunity to extend a very special and very warm welcome to the Honourable Olivia Grange, Minister of Youth, Culture and Sports, Jamaica, who has very graciously accepted our invitation to serve as Champion Minister for Culture in CARICOM. Minister Grange has a wealth of experience and knowledge in the development of cultural industries, and particularly in the music industry, in which she was an active and very successful entrepreneur for many years.

Minister Grange, who will address you very shortly, met with the Task Force over the past two days, and also met with His Excellency Runaldo Ronald Venetiaan, President of Suriname and our Lead Head for Culture, Youth, Gender and Sports, to discuss ways of advancing the cultural development agenda of the region. Minister Grange has pledged to bring all the dynamism and energy for which she is known, to support the work of the Task Force and the work of the RCC. Minister Grange, we look forward to your guidance and your support and to achieving much more through our renewed collective effort.

In closing, I think it would be appropriate to pay tribute to the culture officials past and present who have sustained this very valuable and relevant Regional Cultural Committee so that today, we can celebrate this twentieth anniversary. We recall pioneering Directors of Culture like Mr. Lester Efebo Wilkinson, of Trinidad and Tobago; Mr. Jacques Compton from St. Lucia, Ms. Marguerite Curtain, Jamaica who chaired the first three meetings of the RCC in that order. They and the many others who followed, blazed a trail in regional cultural cooperation from which we all benefit today.

The RCC, in 2009, seeks to advance similar ideals to those of the pioneers of this forum, where we see culture as central and pivotal, in building diverse, stable, cohesive societies based on respect for the many cultures and ethnicities that make up our nation states, and we see culture as the foundation on which we build our regional cooperation and identity. The RCC then and the RCC now, also recognized the tremendous economic value of the creative industries to the sustainable development of small, developing states, and remains committed to realizing even more benefits for artists and our region through the development of these dynamic, indigenous industries.

I would like once again to thank the Government of Suriname most sincerely for the excellent arrangements made for this meeting and wish to say that I look forward to the continued partnership, cooperation and camaraderie that the Regional Cultural Committee represents.

Happy Twentieth Anniversary, RCC!

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org