THE Ministry of Culture has budgeted at least $50 million this fiscal year to spend on preparations for Jamaica’s 50th Independence jubilee celebrations next year.

This result in the quadrupling of its government financed capital spending, according to documents obtained by the Observer.

The Jamaica 50 Celebrations project will attempt to spur pride within Jamaicans as a developmental tool.

The project aims to establish a legacy that will spur our people to the kinds of action that will assure us of future sustainable prosperity for all. This relates to activities in the areas of infrastructural development, culture, sports, and tourism product enhancement, deepening of Diaspora engagement and the expansion of trade and other economic agenda, all in support of Vision 2030, this according to project details outlined in the Estimates of Expenditure published by the Ministry of Finance for fiscal year ending March 2012.

The project’s executing agency will be the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) which amongst other things oversees the annual independence celebrations.

“The major objectives of the Jamaica 50 celebration are to strengthen and enhance the cultural identity of the Jamaican people; to provide spaces for reflection and mediation on the achievements, struggles, challenges and aspirations of our people; to create opportunities for economic advancement through the planning and implementation of trade fairs, market penetration activities exposition and festivals; to engage the Jamaican Diaspora in the project for national development; to foster and promote heritage preservation and product enhancement for the expansion of the tourism market and the economic capacity of the Jamaican economy; to promote Jamaica as a world-class culture and destination for music, film, theatre arts, festivals and events, sports, design, fashion, as well as for the insertion of Jamaica into the mainstream of world cultures and destinations,” stated the document.

The budget will be spent on goods and services geared at promoting the island’s arts and culture. The spend at $50 million is relatively small amidst the over $16.8 billion in new projects planned by Government this fiscal year but its significant in culture ministry terms. The reason is that the project will increase the ministry’s total capital budget funded by Government by 430 per cent to $64 million from only a mere $12 million in the prior year.

The Jamaica Festival, the promotional title for the twin celebration of Emancipation and Independence, originated in 1964, the second year after Independence. The popular programmes during the festival include the Festival Song Competition, the Independence Float Parade, National Grand Gala, and Jamaica Gospel Song Finals.

Interestingly, in 2010 Jamaica almost didn’t have a Grand Gala and National Festival Parade, the flagship events of the national celebrations. However a late injection of funds saved these events.

“The National Festival Parade and Grand Gala — they were our major challenge this year. Due to inadequate funding up to mid-July, it did not seem possible to stage the event,” culture minister Babsy Grange had told the Observer in 2010, adding that the ‘green light’ came only 18 days before Independence Day.

Currently, the recurrent budget for the ‘celebrations of national events’ is slashed to nil this fiscal year ending 2012 from $20 million in 2010/11 and as high as $101 million in 2008/9.

This reduction has forced the JCDC to increase its reliance on sponsorship. With some 75 per cent of the funding coming from the private sector and other government agencies including CHASE fund and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF). In other words, the budgeted $20 million was only part of the total cost of the celebrations which totalled some $70 million and $90 million in 2010 and 2009 respectively.

Even without sponsorship, the $50-million budget for the Jamaica 50 Celebrations represents more than two years of budgeted recurrent spending on national celebrations.