Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth & Sports

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The Honourable Olivia "Babsy" Grange, Minister of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports, left the island on Wednesday, 24th October to attend the 34th General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, France and the International Conference on Intellectual Property and the Creative Industries put on by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Minister Grange is scheduled to meet with the UNESCO Director General as well as with the Heads of Sectors for Communication and Information, Social and Human Sciences, and Culture. The discussions will cover among other things, the Protection of Copyright, Cultural Properties, Underwater Cultural Heritage, Local Content and Protection of Cultural Material.

Jamaica is expected to be elected to the Executive Board of UNESCO to complete the current term of The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. As such, Jamaica will represent the Latin American and Caribbean region on the Executive Board for the period 2007 to 2009.

Minister Grange travels from Paris to Geneva on 28th October and will be one of three keynote speakers at the opening session of the WIPO Conference on Intellectual Property and the Creative Industries on 29th October. The topic of her address will be "Creativity in Diverse Cultures".

Joining Minister Grange will be world renowned Jamaican and international recording artiste Orville "Shaggy" Burrell, who as a featured speaker at the WIPO Meeting, will deliver an eagerly anticipated paper on the "Birth of the Creative Idea" to a special panel on the Concept and Origins of Creativity. Representatives of Jamaica Trade and Invest and the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) will also be in attendance.

On her way back to Jamaica, Miss Grange will stop in England to meet with the Honourable Gerry Sutcliffe, MP, Minister for Sport and other officials in the Department of Culture, Media and Sport.

According to Minister Grange, the purpose of that meeting is to further develop the modalities under the bilateral film co-production agreement between Jamaica and the United Kingdom which was signed earlier this year.

"I will also be raising in the discussions, Jamaica's interest in developing a formal Memorandum of Understanding in Sport which would facilitate the sharing of best practices and the exchange of information and activities between our two countries," the Minister said.

She indicated that they would also be discussing other matters of mutual interest, including issues related to youth, HIV/AIDS and gender affairs.

Minister Grange is being accompanied by Miss Jo-Anne Archibald, Principal Director for Information and Mr. Sydney Bartley, Principal Director for Culture. During her absence, Senator Warren Newby, Parliamentary Secretary will be in charge of the Ministry.

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