Abu Dhabi, November 24, 2018 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Minister of Culture for the United Arab Emirates, Her Excellency Noura Al Kaabi.

Minister Grange signed the MOU on the margins of the UAE-Caribbean Cooperation Forum now underway in the UAE capital.

The MOU commits Jamaica and the UAE to work towards developing a cultural cooperation agreement between both nations.

“I look forward to the development and outcome of this agreement,” said Minister Grange who added that the initial talks focussed on music and food.

Minister Grange said:

“We discussed the impact of Jamaica’s music… as Minister [Al Kaabi] said ‘Who does not know of Jamaica’s Reggae music all over the world?’ We spoke about our food, particularly jerk and our coffee.” 

The UAE-Caribbean Forum is bringing together more than 100 government and business leaders from the UAE and the Caribbean to discuss cooperation in several areas including culture, tourism, finance and investment.

The Jamaican delegation includes Minister Grange as well as the Minister of Tourism, the Honourable Edmund Bartlett and the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith.

The forum which began today (November 24) will end on Monday (November 26).

At the conclusion of the Forum, Minister Grange will travel to Mauritius where UNESCO will consider and make a decision on Jamaica’s application to put Reggae music on the list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

“We look forward to coming home with positive results,” said Minister Grange.

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