Where are the promises you made to the creative arts - Appietus asks Akufo-Addo

Music Producer, Appietus Appiah Dankwa has, asked the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led New Patriotic Party (NPP) government to show evidence of the numerous promises they made to the Creative Arts Industry.

According to him, he vigorously campaigned for the NPP prior to the 2016 elections with the hope of an improved Creative Arts Industry.

But with five months to the 2020 elections, he hasn’t seen the President fulfilling any of the promises he made to the creative arts industry.

He said, “His Excellency I Campaigned Vigorously For You during the 2016 Elections, Please It’s 5 months to election 2020 almost four years now and none of the things you promised the creative arts industry has been done, Please what’s going on”.

Background

The New Patriotic Party prior to taking over power from the National Democratic Congress (NDC) made some great promises to the Creative Arts Industry.

Among the Promises are:

1. Pursue a deliberate marketing programme to promote our unique historical sites, flora and fauna, waterfalls and other cultural artefacts.

2. Take the staffing of these tourist sites and our hospitality industry as a whole seriously.

3. To improve professionalism in the sector, we will partner with the private sector to set up a state-of-the-art hospitality teaching facility, with an operational hotel, classrooms, kitchens, library, and dormitories.

4. Encourage local communities to take ownership and be invested in the sustainability of tourist attractions in their localities.

5. The NPP will champion a revenue-sharing programme to inject 5% of tourism revenues from fees of well-developed tourist attractions into local community projects.

6. Transform the Ghana Tourist Authority into a modern, efficient research and marketing institution with the necessary technical resources and funds to help project the image of Ghana as a globally-recognized tourism brand.

7. Reactivate and resource the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board to function effectively as a repository of both our cultural and historical records.

8. Pursue an ecotourism policy that enables us make these sites available whilst protecting the ecosystem.

9. Invest in Tourism IT as an enabler, to improve knowledge and the sharing of information about tourism opportunities in the country.

10. The Culture Policy, developed and adopted under the Kufuor government, will be reviewed and actively implemented to give our culture pride of place in our national development.

11. We will build a detailed inventory of all our cultural assets, so the nation has a database of these assets.

12. The NPP will ensure that the provisions regarding the protection of Kente and Adinkra designs are strictly enforced against illicit exploitation by foreign interests.

13. We will establish a Creative Arts Fund.

14. The NPP will collaborate with the Chief Justice to create a Division of the High Court, focusing on the Creative Arts to deal with all matters relating to intellectual property rights, complete with a dedicated enforcement unit.

15. the NPP will establish a Creative Arts Council to coordinate and harmonize the various interests and fragmented associations into a well-functioning body to protect the interests of members.

17. The NPP will collaborate with private sector interests to acquire the technology and equipment needed to log creative works, in order to determine true and deserved royalties.

18. We will pursue the construction of modern large seating theatres in every regional capital except Accra, beginning with Takoradi, Tamale and Kumasi, as well as setting up an additional Copyright Office in Tamale to cater for the northern sector in addition to the existing ones in Accra and Kumasi.