THE?CARIBBEAN?REGION has produced for decades many globally recognizable artistes and cultural events that have global reach beyond what the region’s size would suggest. Barbados is no exception.
The recent and sustained success of global pop icon Rihanna is testimony to this.
However, the issue at hand is how this success translates into economic realities for the wider economy and the population of Barbados.
The cultural or creative industries have emerged to be a key growth sector in the Caribbean economy through its contribution to gross domestic product, exports, employment and intellectual property earnings.
On account of the wide array of festivals such as Crop Over and cultural events, the cultural sector has a significant spillover effect on the wider economy, especially on tourism arrivals and destination branding, as well as a major impact on the media, retail, food and beverage, ground transport, hotel and airline sectors.
Barbados, like most Caribbean countries, has a significant and widening deficit in the trade of cultural goods. What this means is that Barbados imports more CDs, DVDs, books, magazines and paintings than it exports.
This should be of no surprise to anyone familiar with the sector.
It is well recognized that merchandise trade does not accurately reflect total exports for the sector. On the other hand, data for trade in services (live performances, tours, concerts and designers’ fees) and earnings from cultural, heritage and festival tourism are largely absent.
These areas where Barbados has fairly strong capabilities generate some foreign exchange earnings.
The other key area in the creative sector in Barbados for which there is some published information is copyright administration. In this regard, the role of the Copyright Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (COSCAP) has been critical in generating positive earnings in terms of royalty income for Barbadian authors and composers and in terms of deepening the institutional structure of the sector.
As the global cultural economy shifts increasingly to the digital arena, so will the role of COSCAP and other institutions in the business of intellectual property exploitation.
All told, it can be argued that the creative sector makes an important contribution to the economy of Barbados and ranks in the top export earning sectors. The creative or cultural industry sector of Barbados has experienced some expansion in industrial and export capabilities in the last few decades with the growth of the festivals sector and the deepening of the music and audiovisual industries in particular.
In addition, shifts in the structure and operation of the global economy – for example, the negotiated market access in the Economic Partnership Agreement – present new opportunities for expansion and diversification of the economy. Projections are that the sector can grow multi-fold over the next decade once the required investment and business support mechanisms are put in place.
Going forward, it is important to note that the business environment for the creative industry sector has suffered from a lack of investment capital, managerial talent, business support and a weak institutional framework in terms of industrial, trade and intellectual property policies.
Low levels of media access, high levels of copyright infringement (such as piracy) and weak distribution channels plague the growth of the sector. In this regard, the role of the Barbados Business Enterprise Trust in funding new start-up companies in the creative sector is a welcome addition to the policy landscape.