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XI Forum of Ministers of Culture and Officials in Charge of Cultural Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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| Final Declaration |
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The Ministers of Culture and Officials Responsible for Cultural Policies who met in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on December 3, 4 and 5, 1999, agreed that the themes to be discussed during the XI Forum were, among others, the link between economy and culture, cultural cooperation and development; and the inputs and challenges of the new technologies for cultural development.
The relationships between the Latin American and Caribbean countries have historically been based on strong cooperation, mutual support and solidarity. This is why they ratified the importance of the Forum as a privileged space to strengthen these relationships.
In this regard, and within the context of the XI Forum, the Ministers and Officials Responsible for Cultural Policies of the Caribbean Region, held a meeting in La Citadelle, where they reaffirmed their commitment to the development of the region, strengthening of its cultural identities, and the active participation of all the nations. Their recommendations are included in the Forums’ Declaration.
The participants in the XI Forum acknowledged the progress achieved during the recent past in the process of reflection on the link between economy and culture. The cultural sector has a specific significance in their national economies, which is reflected in the creation of jobs and production of important goods and services. This is why it is important to quantify its impact on the national economies and for the sector to receive the necessary support and incentives to ensure its consolidation.
As it faces the new millennium, the Region must ensure that culture plays a key role within the economic and political agendas of our countries. Likewise, we must strengthen the cultural component within the development processes and increase our capacity to produce and export cultural goods and services.
To fully achieve these objectives, it is of vital importance that we create the type of cultural cooperation that takes into account the specificities of the region and so promote the consolidation of the economy of culture in our countries.
In the same way, the Ministers and Officials Responsible for Cultural Policies agreed to actively promote cultural industries within the strategies for sustainable development. To this end, the national States must channel financial resources to the sector, promote new investments in this area by the private sector, and encourage international and funding organizations to create specific programs for the cultural industries.
The Forum affirmed that the cultural industries of Latin America and the Caribbean are, and must continue to be, sources of job creation and social development in the Region. This is why it is necessary that international agreements guarantee the free exchange of cultural goods and services by strengthening the policies of Copyrights, ensuring cultural diversity, and promoting mechanisms designed to fight piracy.
The Forum of Ministers and Officials Responsible for Cultural Policies in Latin America and The Caribbean agreed to:
1. Activate cooperation and integration mechanisms to maintain and develop the productivity of the cultural industries of the Region, and that these industries be treated in their specificity in the corresponding forums.
2. Actively support and promote regional studies related to the contribution of cultural industries to the economy, such as those currently being developed by Colombia with the Andres Bello Convention and CARICOM. These studies must strengthen the capacity of the member countries of the Forum to participate in the international trade negotiations related to cultural industries.
3. Actively promote the implementation of programs for the training of human resources in the areas related to cultural industries.
4. Promote and strengthen the development and consolidation of national cultural information systems as a pre-requisite to the implementation of SICLAC.
5. Maintain regional programs in the areas of cultural heritage preservation with emphasis on seminars for specialists and technicians.
6. Promote regional programs in the field of cultural tourism and give greater scope to inter-sectorial activities.
7. Develop a long-term cooperation program to add new areas of joint activity, through the establishment of new regional coordination instruments. This program will be prepared by the Dominican Republic as part of the works for the XII Forum of Ministers and Officials Responsible for Cultural Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean in the year 2000, under the Theme “Communication and Culture”.
Finally, the Ministers and Officials Responsible for Cultural Policies in Latin America and the Caribbean reaffirmed their will to work together in the face of the challenges and opportunities presented to the region’s cultural diversity by the process of globalization, thereby ensuring a better quality of life of our peoples.
Citadelle’s Recommendations
Culture is the fundamental “raison d’etre” for all human societies. It constitutes the basis for interaction and intercommunication between various groups in order to function among themselves and in relation to the rest of the world in order to bring about change in it. Culture encompasses all things politic, economic and social. Thus, culture is the essence of the material and immaterial works of art, the knowledge of how to do and how to be, languages, ways of thinking, behavioural processes and experiences accumulated by people in their efforts to free themselves to take control of nature and to build a society respectful of human rights.
The basis of Caribbean culture lies in the creativity of its people, who have never ceased to demonstrate their creativity and to express their originality.
In all areas of culture, in the arts and in languages, there is evident a vision of the world which is characterized of our cultural identities. Cultural Policies in the Caribbean must be articulated through recognition of the importance of preservation and the enrichment of our cultural identities. Development projects must take into account the cultural dimension, a dimension, which will give credibility to any development programs.
The Caribbean States must undertake studies and conduct research on the impact of cultural activities on development and on the growth of our economies.
Activities aimed at promoting cultural identities must have as an objective the preservation and evaluation of our cultural heritage, the production and distribution of cultural goods and services, cultural shows as well as support through information and communication.
Cultural policies of the countries of the Caribbean seek to ensure that our cultural products are competitive on the world cultural market. Caribbean intercultural cooperation must be focused not only on a better understanding of our cultures, but fundamentally on a regional regrouping in order to strengthen our competitiveness on the world market.
Throughout their history, Caribbean people have always displayed an ability to adapt and to create their own reality in relation to their culture. In this new dispensation characterized by globalization with its emphasis on free trade it is important to establish defence strategies designed by our creative people, architects of universal works of art. |
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