To a downtrodden entertainment sector that has been hard hit by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the island and has remained mostly dormant since August 24, 2020, Prime Minister, the Most Honourable Andrew Holness says “now is the time to plan”, as we prepare to get back to normal with life after COVID-19.

The prime minister made his appeal to the sector while speaking during parliament on Tuesday (April 13).

While making his presentation to the House of Representatives, Minister Holness said to members of the entertainment sector, “now is the time to plan, now is the time to develop a new strategy for delivering your product because when the lockdown ova, I don’t think yuh going have hands to manage parties and concerts and just people having fun”.

Amid his encouragement to members of the entertainment sector to get started with their planning, he expressed that it is also time for the government to plan.

“What we have seen…and what is clearly demonstrated is that the entertainment industry has leadership…there are persons who have great business acumen, there are persons who understand the industry and so we have on the other side, good partners that we can work with and start to plan what the entertainment industry is going to look like after COVID,” said Holness.

He added, that he would also be looking towards “adding new ways of getting entertainment as we transition out of the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The prime minister mentioned, that he had expressed to Minister of Culture, Gender and Entertainment and Sports, Babsie Grange, that “we need to look at the investments that we need to make”, to address the insufficiency of places and venues for entertainment purposes.

He highlighted that because of the how city has evolved over the years, “we haven’t designated spaces for entertainment, so you might have a dancehall right beside a church, a clinic, within residential areas and we disturb our neighbors…and it creates this tension in the society”.

As a result of this, Holness argued that, “what the pandemic has revealed is that we need to reconfigure our society, we need to sit with the stakeholders so we can build a new Jamaica, a Jamaica in which your entertainment can be accommodated and if you want to party from 5 am to 5 am the next day” there is a designated space for you to do so.