OECS Secretariat, Castries St. Lucia December 3rd, 2009: The OECS Export Development Unit, (OECS-EDU) is providing technical support for Creative Sector Development in the OECS Region. Creative Industries are clusters of economic activity that rely on copyright protection; the EDU's primary focus is on the music and film/ audiovisual subsectors.

On the heels of a recent stakeholder consultation in St. Lucia organized by Professionals in Action for Creative Enterprise (PACE), the OECS EDU reaffirmed intentions to help PACE and other such organizations formulate strategies that will enhance the delivery of benefits to their members. The consultation in St. Lucia heard presentations guiding the formulation of Creative Industries strategies in the Caribbean, as well as the role of technology in Creative Industries. Plans were also revealed to establish an OECS/private sector website to promote service providers making up the Creative Sector in the OECS.

S-EDU Business Development Officer says local organizations are useful networks for attracting technical and other support for the overall benefit of the Creative Industries. Regional organisations including the OECS have been prioritizing support to the formation of associations in the cultural industries: "For more than just the purposes of accessing funding, it is important that the Creative Services Sector be organised. In some cases it could be initially through an umbrella body and in other cases initially specific industry organizations. So for example you can have a music organisation being formed and an audiovisual Industry organization. It depends on the status of the industry in each member state. It is not the same in every OECS Member State. We also support strategic planning which will lend to tangible activities because it will show that there is a plan in place which will allow us to guide further interventions from the OECS-EDU standpoint and also national governments. We are in direct contact with several of these movements. Associations have not been formalized in some countries [...] but have been suffering from a lack of resource capacity. We have two programmes under the EDU that target Business Support Organisations as a group, and then we also have as a priority sector the Creative Industries, particularly the Entertainment Sector, Music and Audiovisual and so we definitely have a direct interest in that."

The OECS EDU Business Development officer notes that fragmentation is one of the greatest challenges facing the development of Creative Industries in the OECS and broader Caribbean region. She says organized entities in the Creative Industry at the Member State level will help activate regional umbrella organizations such as the Caribbean Audiovisual Network, C.A.N and the Caribbean Music Industry Network CaMINO. The OECS EDU undertakes cluster interventions and provides direct in-firm technical support to client companies in the audiovisual and music industries, with funding from the Caribbean Trade and Private Sector Diversification Programme CTPSDP of the European Union.: "We support the formation of these organizations both for the development of the industry for cogent movement towards a particular goal in strategic planning and advocacy as well as the delivery of programmes. There is technical assistance that can be accessed for the Creative Industries. It's a buzz word right now. The industry is in a place where for the first time, formal attention is being paid to it and funds are being made available for product development, improvement of technical skills and that kind of thing. Technical assistance is available in several areas including HR Development Management Capacity and Financial Management for members of the association."

Earlier this year, the OECS EDU held consultations in all nine Member States towards developing an action plan for the Creative Industries. Draft documents are now being circulated to all Creative Industry stakeholders to inform the finalization of the action plan. The Roseau based OECS EDU was established in 2000 as an institution of the OECS Secretariat mandated to increase exports from the region through the enhancement of the competitiveness of OECS products and services in domestic, regional and international markets. This is accomplished with a core of Business Development Officers located at its Headquarters in Roseau, Commonwealth of Dominica in collaboration with strategic partners in other OECS Member States.