Barbara Oteng Gyasi
The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Barbara Oteng Gyasi, has revealed plans of establishing an Arts Rights Court for the creative arts industry.
The Arts Rights Court, BEATWAVES gathered, was being established to deal with copyright and other related matters pertaining to the Creative Arts Industry.
The minister, in a statement, stated that her ministry had already engaged the Office of the Chief Justice (CJ) to ensure the establishment of a specialized court to deal with issues of the industry.
She disclosed that the CJ had approved the establishment of a specialized court, as a division of the high court, to deal with copyright and other related matters pertaining to the creative arts industry.
“It is expected of government that this court will facilitate the effective and expeditious resolution of specific disputes that affect the creative arts industry to protect the right and interest of creative practitioners,” the statement said.
It said the ministry in consultation with the Judicial Service would communicate the modalities for the court in the next legal year which commenced in October this year.
In a related development, Mrs Oteng-Gyasi has engaged the leadership of the tourism, culture and creative arts sector towards the effective utilization of the GH¢50 million fund announced by the government to revamp the industry.
The minister said the fund would help revamp the sector to become buoyant and translate into Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product through job creation.
The meeting was to collate views on how to help practitioners in the industry access government’s stimulus package as announced by the Minister for Finance at the mid-year budget review in Parliament.
According to Mrs Oteng-Gyasi, the GH¢50 million earmarked by government for the sector would cushion the industry and said her outfit was engaging the Finance Ministry for modalities for players to access the fund.
She, however, advised interested persons to liaise with the Ghana Revenue Authority to generate Tax Identification Numbers (TIN) to qualify for the package.
Mr. Divine Owusu-Ansah, World Bank Project Coordinator for the Tourism Ministry, said applicants for the package must be Ghanaians, registered with the Registrar General’s Department and must also register with the Ghana Tourism Authority.
Nana Atuo Owouhene Achampong, President of the Ghana Association of the Visual Artists, appealed to the minister, to get a technical team to assist members access the fund.
By George Clifford Owusu