BRUSSELS FORUM EXAMINES MUSIC’S ECONOMIC POTENTIAL FOR POOREST COUNTRIES; MUSICIANS CALLED ‘TRUE AMBASSADORS’ OF GLOBALIZATION

Third UN Conference on LDCs
21 May 2001





BRUSSELS, 21 May -- Popular musicians were the true ambassadors of globalization, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said today, at a youth forum on the music industry, part of the Third United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries in Brussels.

Rubens Ricupero said the contribution globalization brought to the cross-fertilization of human cultures was invaluable. Music showed how globalization was not just about the unification of markets -- it was about the unification, on a planetary dimension, of the space for human communication. Noting the sizeable opportunities in music, he pointed out the numerous examples of musicians from least developed countries (LDCs) and other developing countries successfully exporting their music. The barriers they faced, however, were considerable, and finding ways to build domestic capacity in the LDC music industries would require innovative thinking.

During the forum, which was intended to highlight the economic potential of music for LDCs, speakers stressed that music had the power to bring the attention of the wider world to the problems of the less fortunate and to galvanize forces to address them. In that regard, they noted the need for firm government policy to protect and facilitate the music industry in LDCs and called for increased education and training in the sector.

Speaking at the outset of the meeting, a representative of UNCTAD said insufficient attention had been paid to the music sector in LDCs, and UNCTAD had taken steps to address that issue. The music industry had historically been concentrated in a small number of industrial countries. In recent years, those companies had acquired global reach and LDCs seeking to participate in the world market faced tough challenges, copyright and technology issues among them, which must be addressed. Today’s discussion would focus on ways to move forward on the challenges facing the music industry.

Following opening statements, presentations were made on the challenges and prospects facing LDCs in the music industry.

Ralph Henry, Development Economist, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, said the Caribbean represented a true confluence of cultures, which offered something for everyone. He gave an overview of Caribbean music’s emergence on the world stage, noting that migration had been the source of market penetration of Caribbean music across the globe. Nevertheless, Caribbean music was still a fringe music throughout the North Atlantic.

The nature of the international music industry and the fact that there were a handful of firms that dominated the recording and distribution of music must be discussed, he said. That meant that if music was to expand, the reality of that industrial concentration must be faced and a mechanism must be created that would allow for penetration of the system. Education and training in all the various aspects of the industry were key, as was establishing a firm presence abroad.

Abdul Khaleque, Department of Bengali, University of Rajshahi in Bangladesh, and Hortencio Langa, Chairman of the Association of Musicians of Mozambique, also addressed the subject.

The meeting then turned to the subject of technologies and copyright issues.

During that discussion, Kurt Kemper, Director-Adviser in charge of copyright matters in the Department of Cooperation for Development at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), said legal protection of copyright and intellectual property was a decisive incentive for cultural creation. Rampant music piracy undermined the potential markets in LDCs and other developing countries and must be fought against with solid legal tools. Digital technology and the Internet had enormously eased market access and dissemination, but had also created opportunities for abuse of intellectual property. Appropriate technologies of access control must be used and strong collecting societies must be built.

Governments had a moral obligation to provide their own music creators with legal protection for their products abroad, he said. They could only do this by adhering to the international legal protection systems. He noted two WIPO treaties -- on copyright and phonographs -- adopted in 1996 which aimed at protecting rights in, among other areas, the realm of the Internet.

Mandisi B. Mpahlwa, Deputy Minister for Finance of South Africa, chaired the meeting and made opening remarks.

Fionan O’Muircheartaigh, Chief Economic Adviser, Enterprise Ireland, served as moderator of the meeting’s discussion and gave an overview of the Irish music and cultural industry and its implications for that of LDCs.

Roger Wallis, Executive Chairman of the Swedish Society of Popular Music Composers and professor at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, opened the section on new technologies.

There will be another parallel event at 3 p.m. on women entrepreneurs.




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