Entertainment academy to be built in MoBay

The Tourism Enhancement Fund has allocated $50 million to develop designs and start construction of a tourism entertainment academy on the Montego Bay Convention Centre lands in St James.

Prime Minister Andrew Holness made the announcement during his contribution to the 2022/23 Budget Debate, in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

Holness said that Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett will provide more details during his sectoral presentation.

The Prime Minister also informed that a national modern music grant is to be established to ensure that Jamaica continues its proud legacy of influencing global trends in music, arts and culture.

"The grant will be awarded annually to four Jamaicans - one classical, one reggae and two from the dancehall space - from the music and entertainment sectors, to pursue their professional advancement, whether they are artistes, performers, sound engineers or composers. We are supporting the reopening of the entertainment sector, not just with talk but with cash, access to credit, facilitation and training," Holness emphasised.

He said that in June 2021, the Government acted early in favour of reopening the entertainment sector, just as the country was coming out of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, only to see the emergence of a new strain that scuttled the process.

"Of course there was blame all around and accusations of unfairness. I think the lesson for the entire country is that we must be cautious and, even now, be prepared for the emergence of a new strain or even an existing strain that may cause a new wave of infections," he noted.

Meanwhile, Holness said over the past several weeks, he has received numerous proposals from persons in the industry.

"They make important points such as specific support needed to protect the creators and producers of the music, such as improvements to intellectual property, trademarks and copyrights legislation. I will not be able to address these issues and those proposals here in this presentation, but I wish to assure them that I am taking a direct interest in the matter," the prime minister said.

"Along with the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange, we will carefully study these proposals with the aim of partnering with the music and entertainment sectors towards building our Jamaican music and culture," Holness added.