For Ronald Boo Hinkson, the creative sector is one of the most important assets that Saint Lucia possesses.
“This is primarily because it is driven by our own human resource and unlike tourism, it can never be taken from us.”
Hinkson is a prolific songwriter and renowned Saint Lucian musician who for decades has earned a livelihood from performing, recording and songwriting. He believes that developing the orange economy creates a legacy for successive generations.
“This is something which is of us, by us, for us and if we invest and develop this industry in the way we have invested in tourism, the returns will be immeasurable and transformative,” he says.
The orange economy, also known as the creative economy, is the umbrella term for economic activity derived from areas such as intellectual property, creativity and cultural heritage. It involves film, music, dance, publishing, design, visual arts, fashion and software development.
Recognised as a significant driver of economic growth, job creation, and social development for the Caribbean, the orange economy represents a shift in economic thinking where culture and creativity are not just social values but recognisable assets for continued economic prosperity.
At the recent 56th Annual General Assembly of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU), the Orange Economy was a focal point, as media and communications leaders explored the opportunities it presented.
During the assembly, director of the UNESCO Regional Office for the Caribbean and UNESCO Representative to the English — and Dutch-speaking Caribbean Eric Falt stressed the critical importance of amplifying Caribbean voices, noting the orange economy as a key driver of jobs and prosperity.
The term “orange economy” was first coined by former Colombian president Iván Duque Márquez and former culture minister Felipe Buitrago who explained it as a colour said to resonate across cultures in creative, religious and cultural spheres.
During the fourth UN-backed World Entrepreneurs Investment Forum (WEIF), Buitrago stated: “When you think about activities such as audiovisual, filmmaking, television, video games, music in all its forms as well as crafts, visual arts, theatre… those creative expressions live together in a very rich ecosystem where you have creators, you have dreamers, but you also have doers, entrepreneurs and policymakers, and that’s a very powerful sector of the economy.”
According to UNESCO the orange economy represents 3% of global gross domestic product (GDP) and more than 30 million jobs worldwide.
However, for Caribbean nations like Saint Lucia who have long depended on agricultural exports and tourism to sustain livelihoods, the new reality of the orange economy is slowly coming home.
Long has creative expression in the region been described as hobbies, past-times and extracurricular activities with little significance given to their intrinsic, cultural and economic values and significance.
In an interview with St. Lucia Times, Dr. Gale TC Rigobert highlighted that repositioning the orange economy as a new economic frontier shows its growing role as a key driver of inclusive growth, cultural pride, and economic diversification.
Dr Rigobert, who is the CEO and principal consultant of Propel Ltd and recently appointed advisor for Caribbean Affairs to the Pan-African Council, says the orange economy offers small nations like ours a new pathway to economic diversity, reducing our dependence on traditional, highly volatile sectors such as agriculture and tourism.
“It is rooted in culture, heritage, talent and innovation and presents an opportunity to generate high value for our creatives. The emerging opportunities in that sector can stimulate entrepreneurship, strengthen national identity, expand the export base of Saint Lucia, affording it greater trade and revenue-generating opportunities in the global economy.”
She contends, however, that this does not happen overnight.
“Countries must be strategic and purposeful about repositioning the orange/creative economy as a key pillar of social and economic growth.”
“It is critical that countries are intentional about balancing commercialisation with authenticity and cultural sovereignty. While our cultural heritage, for example, within the context of the orange economy, can develop into highly tradeable assets, generating significant revenue.”
“As collective custodians of our cultural heritage, artistic outputs, innovations and lived experiences, the onus rests with us to safeguard what is ours, even while we salivate over the tremendous economic benefits to be had for our country and our people,” she went on to caution.
Among the frameworks she cited that need to be in place include prioritising intellectual property rights, easy access to financing, digital infrastructure, artificial intelligence integration and market access.
“The presence of Saint Lucia at the recent CARIFESTA and EXPO Japan and the impact of our creatives can be seen as the forces of the orange economy at work,” Rigobert says.
“By the same token, it is equally important to continue to bring the world to our cultural shores through events such as Carnival, Jounen Kwéyòl and the Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival,” she says.
“We need not shy away from the delicate challenge that this two-way street may present, and that is the need to preserve our cultural authenticity and cultural sovereignty while, at the same time, ensuring that we can leverage our cultural and heritage assets to generate economic growth.”
According to Louis Lewis, CEO of the Saint Lucia Tourism Authority (SLTA), the orange economy is not just the content delivery but extends to how people earn a living out of it.
“Within the context of the Caribbean we are excellent in the literary arts – we have the likes of Sir Derek Walcott, who won a Nobel Prize for literature and all that comes with it. We also have very strong performances, especially with regards to some of the events – our music performers, our artists performing and earning an income out of it, not just in Saint Lucia, but regionally and even internationally,” Lewis said.
“Very often people see it only at the front end in terms of the music performers and that is important and it is also significant, but there are lots of components that have backward linkages to the rest of the country – there’s transportation taking place, the accommodation elements that are taking place, and when we use our artists who are attractive and have international appeal, it marries with our tourism thrust and we are able to get people to visit Saint Lucia because of that and there is no bigger example of our use of the orange economy as the Saint Lucia Jazz & Arts Festival, which generates a lot of activity from an economic standpoint which we benefit from.”
Commenting on the role of the SLTA extending to greater support for the creative sector, Lewis said that it is a fine line.
“As an agency responsible for promoting Saint Lucia, we utilise the attractiveness of the arts, and we provide visibility for the artists as much as we utilise the visibility of the artists for drawing attention for people to visit Saint Lucia. Sometimes our role gets mistaken, and people think that we should get involved in the development of the artists, but that is not our mandate unfortunately,” he states.
Lewis supports the idea of quantifying the contribution of the orange economy to GDP going forward.
“If we don’t do that assessment, I think we stand the risk of minimising the importance of some of those areas. At the SLTA we have no doubt that the orange economy is important for us and is an important vehicle for promoting the destination, but sometimes I think if we understand the full gamut or the benefit of the orange economy, maybe our policy prescription and the assistance that is granted would probably be different.”
Saint Lucia’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Creative Industry, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, is in agreement.
“The Ministry of Creative Industries has been in touch with the Statistical Department. We are designing a model for the measurement of the contribution and it is being tested… the hope is that very shortly we will have instruments that can be used to measure this,” Hilaire states.
Hilaire says measuring the orange economy will help create a better case for more investment into the sector.
“We have recognised that the orange economy certainly can make a significant contribution to the GDP of the country, as well as creating numerous opportunities for our young people,” Hilaire told St. Lucia Times.
“What makes it even more exciting is that it is dominated by young people, and therefore, when we speak of an age when young people face higher levels of unemployment than other demographics, it really gives us an opportunity to get them constructively engaged.”
Hilaire explained that this premise gave rise to the creation of the Youth Economy Agency and the recent provision of grants.
