In north, south, east and west, the sounds of steel­bands will echo through the at­mos­phere, invit­ing par­tic­i­pa­tion in the cel­e­bra­tion of one of Trinidad and To­ba­go's ma­jor gifts to the world.

It is an ho­n­our this coun­try wears proud­ly at home and abroad, for the cre­ation of the 20th cen­tu­ry's on­ly gen­uine mu­si­cal in­stru­ment, a recog­ni­tion re­in­forced by the Unit­ed Na­tions' de­c­la­ra­tion of World Steel­pan Day.

The cel­e­bra­tions in cities, towns and com­mu­ni­ties, in ad­di­tion to mark­ing a month of fes­tiv­i­ties, al­low cit­i­zens to get close to the bands on the roads, squares and for­mal stages, and to ap­pre­ci­ate and cel­e­brate the play­ers.

Of spe­cial pride must be the fact that sig­nif­i­cant num­bers of to­day's pan play­ers are young women and men. It is heart-warm­ing and re­as­sur­ing to see the con­tin­ued val­ue placed on the in­stru­ment and the po­ten­tial for even greater de­vel­op­ment aris­ing from the ef­forts be­ing in­vest­ed by to­day's gen­er­a­tion in the gift of their an­ces­tors.

One of the most im­por­tant events on Pan Trin­ba­go's month-long cal­en­dar of cel­e­bra­tions is the World Steel­pan Con­fer­ence at the Hy­att Re­gency Trinidad.

Among the most im­por­tant agen­da items for dis­cus­sion is the fi­nanc­ing and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the in­stru­ment, the bands and the play­ers.

The in­ter­na­tion­al mu­sic in­dus­try is a mul­ti-bil­lion-dol­lar busi­ness, en­com­pass­ing record­ings, live per­for­mances, pub­lish­ing and all oth­er as­pects of the cre­ation and con­sump­tion of mu­sic.

The cre­ation and ex­port of steel­pans, and the tour­ing of bands to ma­jor cap­i­tals around the world, in­clud­ing and be­yond the West In­di­an di­as­po­ra, have been tak­ing place for decades.

What is need­ed now is a con­cert­ed ef­fort to ex­pand these ac­tiv­i­ties.

Out of the dis­cus­sions on fi­nanc­ing and sus­tain­abil­i­ty must come a clear fo­cus, in­ten­tion and op­er­a­tional plan for steel­band ac­tiv­i­ty to be­come ful­ly recog­nised and de­vel­oped as an eco­nom­ic ex­port prod­uct and a ma­jor for­eign ex­change earn­er.

In their re­spec­tive roles and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, the Gov­ern­ment, through the diplo­mat­ic ser­vice, must place steel­band ex­ports, in all their forms, on the agen­da of Trinidad and To­ba­go's em­bassies.

Pri­vate-sec­tor en­tre­pre­neurs, par­tic­u­lar­ly pro­mot­ers of events, must press for an ex­pand­ed and new­ly en­er­gised reach in­to the cap­i­tals of the world, ex­tend­ing well be­yond the Di­as­po­ra.

There is al­ready a foun­da­tion on which to build.

The steel­pan has been em­braced by au­di­ences far be­yond T&T. The in­stru­ment has found a place in or­ches­tras, schools, uni­ver­si­ties, record­ing stu­dios and con­cert halls across the world.

The ques­tion now is whether we are pre­pared to treat this achieve­ment not on­ly as a source of na­tion­al pride, but as an in­dus­try ca­pa­ble of gen­er­at­ing sus­tained eco­nom­ic val­ue.

The op­por­tu­ni­ty is too sig­nif­i­cant to re­main large­ly in­for­mal or frag­ment­ed.

This me­dia house is cer­tain that Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ly Ram­sey-Moore un­der­stands that while pro­mot­ing and man­ag­ing the con­tin­u­ing evo­lu­tion and spread of steel­band at home is a vi­tal­ly im­por­tant re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, the time is right to es­tab­lish a new era — one in which the steel­band, pan play­ers and or­gan­is­ers per­ma­nent­ly oc­cu­py the streets and stages of the world.

The tal­ent ex­ists. The in­stru­ment has in­ter­na­tion­al ap­peal. The his­to­ry is ours. What is now re­quired is the vi­sion, in­vest­ment and or­gan­i­sa­tion to turn cul­tur­al in­flu­ence in­to eco­nom­ic pow­er.

Let the flag woman take the stage.