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Basseterre, St. Kitts, November 10, 2017 (SKNIS): Minister of Culture et al., the Honourable Shawn Richards and Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Mr. Stanley Knight attended the 4th annual African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) Ministers of Culture Meeting at the ACP headquarters in Brussels, Belgium on November 09 -10, 2017.

The meeting preceded the Ministers of Culture Conference held on November 07 and 08 under the theme “Making Culture an Impact Investment in Achieving 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development.”

The meeting focused on four (4) main areas: culture as an engine for economic growth and employment, culture in Intra-ACP Cooperation and ACP-EU Relations Post-2020, integration of culture in all strategies and policies to have a leveraging effect on sustainable development, and global initiatives for women and young people as entrepreneurs in ACP cultural cooperation programmes.

This meeting continued the discussion of culture as an instrument of cooperation, reinforcing the commitment of the ACP community to invest in culture and consider it as a key driver in economic and human development to promote cultural diversity.

The last meeting was held in 2012 in Brussels and the next meeting is slated for 2019 in Niger.

The ACP Group includes 79 countries: 48 from sub-Saharan Africa, 16 from the Caribbean and 15 from the Pacific Region.