The Jamaica Business Development Corporation (JBDC), in partnership with the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport; the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) and international firm Nordicity, has embarked on a US$72,000 project to strengthen the cultural and creative industries (CCIs) in the island.

Titled ‘UNESCO JAM NSS CCI – Economic and Social Impact of Jamaica’s Cultural and Creative Industries’, the project is geared towards validating the country’s CCIs through Economic Impact Assessments (EIA) and the National Statistical System (NSS).  

The project came about as a result of a mapping survey that was conducted by the JBDC in 2020 to garner much-needed information about the industry.

CCI, also known as the orange economy, can be defined as those industries whose activities are based on cultural values or other artistic individual or collective creative expressions.

The survey gathered data from 550 CCI stakeholders, the findings of which revealed that one of the most significant opportunities for achieving growth and increased revenue for the industry was by improving market development and sales.

Although Jamaica’s culture is famous worldwide, accurate measurements of its contributions to the economy are not properly recorded nor understood although some experts estimate that it could be as much as 15 per cent of Jamaica’s GDP.

“Another critical thing that came out of that mapping was that vexed issue of data as it relates to its collection, analysis and utilisation that is specific to the creative industries,” said the JBDC’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Harold Davis, who was addressing a Jamaica Information Service Think Tank session on Wednesday (January 11).

Davis noted that there was also the need for information about the specific value of CCIs, the number of persons employed within the industry and the value of their contribution to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), which influenced the decision to embark on the project.

 Among the key objectives are to develop a comprehensive profile of Jamaica’s CCIs, to measure their economic contribution and to identify recommendations and strategies for the development of key sectors within the industry.

Paula Jackson, director of the Economic Accounting Division at STATIN, said that the entity was pleased to be partnering with the JBDC and the other partners in measuring the CCI that the agency will provide guidance as it relates to the capture and compilation of the data.

“When we are looking at the data, we will be looking at GDP and we will be looking at it from the production side. We have to look at the activities that we are measuring based on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) framework for statistics, which outlines the things that are to be measured,” Jackson said.

“It is something that our stakeholders have been asking us about, so we happy for this project and where it has reached, so far,” she continued.

To achieve these objectives, Davis informed that “we are doing an EIA [environmental impact assessment] of the creative industries, which will give us a specific value of the industry. It will also give us sub-data on the value and importance of social development and provide specific recommendations for the sector as well”.

He highlighted that “it is important that we begin to formally understand the sector and its contribution to GDP because if you can’t measure the particular product or industry, it will be difficult to map it’s progress, assess its return on investment and know how to even invest in these industries”.

“It is, therefore, our goal, through the United Kingdom system and other systems, to be able to understand the value of the CCIs on an ongoing basis,” Davis shared.