Above: Kingston (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Caribbean is increasingly looking to the creative sector for pathways to growth; Jamaica should be no different in this regard, according to Harold Davis, deputy chief executive officer of the Jamaica Business Development Corporation.

Davis, who was speaking in Kingston earlier this week, said Jamaica’s “indigenous and endogenous products and services inspired from these products and facilities form the basis of what we think is sustainable competitiveness for us as a country.”

Globally, the creative industry is estimated to account for more than 7 percent of GDP, according to State Minister for Industry Sharon Ffolkes-Abrahams.

“The process through which new ideas are generated and successfully introduced in the marketplace is a primary driver of economic growth and national competitiveness and we must continue to create a framework that encourages new ideas and protect the rights of all Jamaicans,” she said. “The creative works remain a viable resource that need to be given more protection to sustain our economies and societies.”

Last year, Jamaica Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said the government would soon establish a National Commission on Cultural and Creative Industries.

“We have to take a new approach to how we treat our cultural and creative industries,” she said at the time.