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“Audiovisual Services in the EPA: Opportunities and Challenges in the National Sector” Holds Forum in Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, July 29, 2010

The first forum about the audiovisual sector and the economic agreements with the European Union, called “Audiovisual Services in the EPA: Opportunities and Challenges in the National Sector” opened on Thursday morning in the auditorium of the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo (FUNGLODE). The goal of the forum was to raise consciousness about what implications the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) holds for the national audiovisual industry as well as the need to eradicate the deficiencies it currently faces with the idea of taking advantage of the stated Agreement.

The debate was directed at national organizations, private as well as public, involved in the sector: media directors, filmmakers, art professors, academics, cultural workers, production companies, lawyers, businesspeople and anyone else interested in the issue.

In addition, the forum looked at three more base objectives: to emphasize the importance of strengthening the industry through the consolidation of all involved subsectors, to highlight and look at concerns of the participants and to identify funders or institutions who can be contacted by national organizations to provide support for audiovisual initiatives.

Those attending the forum included national and international participants such as Guzmán Fernández, of EGEDA, (Audiovisual Producers´ Rights Management Association); Carla Foderingham, of The Trinidad and Tobago Film Company; Leidylin Contreras, of the Office of Foreign Commerce and Administration of Commercial Treaties (DICOEX) of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce; Leticia Tonos, of the Dominican Film Association; Marlon Soto, of the National Film Office; Agustín Cortes, of the School of Film, TV and Photography of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD) and Manuel Canales, from The Media Group Inc.

The table of honor, presided over by the Secretary of State and National Organizer for European Development Funds, Domingo Jiménez, also seated the Director of Foreign Commerce at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Yahaira Sosa; Director of Audiovisuals for FUNGLODE, Omar de la Cruz; National Coordinator of the Institutional Support Program for Regional Integration (ISPRI), Arsenio Jiménez and Humberto Pérez, of the European Delegation in the Dominican Republic.

The Forum “Audiovisual Services in the EPA: Opportunities and Challenges in the National Sector” was organized by DICOEX, FUNGLODE, the Federation of European Chambers of Commerce (FEDECAMARAS), Caribbean Export and the Institutional Support Program for Regional Integration (ISPRI).

The Dominican Republic signed the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), along with the CARIFORUM countries and the European Union, on October 15, 2008. The accord contains Protocol III Relative to Cultural Cooperation which provides for the establishment of a framework of cooperation among the signatories with the goal of promoting and facilitating an exchange of activities, goods and services of a cultural nature, including activities, among others, in the audiovisual sector.