Kingsley Cooper, executive chairperson of Caribbean Fashion Week (CFW), yesterday urged regional government''s to pump more money into the creative industries, arguing that this was one sure way of meeting the challenges of the global marketplace head-on.

"It''s time for governments (of the region) to restructure, re-prioritise, and re-position resources, away from the things which are dead and dying, and focus on those things with high growth potential and which will allow us to succeed on the international market," Cooper argued.

He singled out the fashion industry, noting that in the case of Jamaica, it holds the key "to economic competitiveness" and offers "the best opportunities" for wealth creation.

"The creative industries are the one platform which the Caribbean can justly claim as its own. What we have is unique, special, and exciting, and it is the one thing which the markets in the developed world will pay almost any cost for," he added.

Cooper was speaking at the launch of the third annual Caribbean Fashion Week at the Hilton Kingston Hotel.