The past few months have been a pe­ri­od of sig­nif­i­cant de­vel­op­ments for the na­tion­al in­stru­ment.

The long over­due pas­sage of the Na­tion­al Mu­si­cal In­stru­ment Bill, leg­is­la­tion that legal­ly de­clares the steel­pan this coun­try’s na­tion­al in­stru­ment, clears the way for the pro­mo­tion and ex­plo­ration of the in­stru­ment’s cul­tur­al and cre­ative po­ten­tial.

The pas­sion­ate de­bate sparked by Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley’s an­nounce­ment that the steel­pan will be added to the Coat of Arms, how­ev­er, shows how much work still needs to be done to boost pub­lic aware­ness of the in­stru­ment’s unique place in T&T’s his­to­ry and as a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of our na­tion­al iden­ti­ty.

Yes, there has been progress and much to cel­e­brate as Steel­pan Month 2024 draws to a close.

No­tably, there was the an­nounce­ment on Sun­day by Pan Trin­ba­go pres­i­dent Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore of plans for a $100 mil­lion head­quar­ters for the steel­pan in Port-of-Spain.

The fa­cil­i­ty will be lo­cat­ed on the site of the old postal ser­vice head­quar­ters on Wright­son Road, be­tween the Hy­att Re­gency ho­tel and T&T Fire Ser­vice head­quar­ters.

The six-storey struc­ture will house a mu­se­um, per­for­mance hall and rooftop din­ing, as well as of­fice spaces to be utilised by Gov­ern­ment en­ti­ties.

Such a fa­cil­i­ty is long over­due in the birth­place of the on­ly in­stru­ment to be in­vent­ed in the 20th cen­tu­ry and can be no less than world-class, with state-of-the-art fea­tures that will at­tract not on­ly tourists, but in­vestors, mu­si­cians, aca­d­e­mics and all oth­ers in­ter­est­ed in the his­to­ry and the evo­lu­tion of the steel­pan.

Done prop­er­ly, it will help erase some of the em­bar­rass­ment sur­round­ing that pre­vi­ous failed at­tempt to build a steel­pan head­quar­ters that de­gen­er­at­ed in­to an ex­er­cise of waste. An aban­doned eye­sore off the Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­way in Trinci­ty was all that was left to show for un­kept promis­es made more than 23 years ago.

That un­fin­ished build­ing, lo­cat­ed on land giv­en to Pan Trin­ba­go by then-prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, came to rep­re­sent dreams and as­pi­ra­tions for the na­tion­al in­stru­ment that seemed out of reach as the steel­band body be­came mired in debt and mis­man­age­ment.

That is why it is so im­por­tant for this project and all the oth­er promis­es made re­cent­ly for the ad­vance­ment of the steel­pan to be made a re­al­i­ty.

In ad­di­tion to the long-await­ed Pan Trin­ba­go head­quar­ters, re­sources should al­so be di­rect­ed to the spaces where the na­tion­al in­stru­ment is housed.

Al­though in re­cent years some steel­bands have been for­tu­nate re­cip­i­ents of up­grad­ed ac­com­mo­da­tions, there are still many pa­n­yards in ur­gent need of reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion and ren­o­va­tion.

Pa­n­yards are im­por­tant com­mu­ni­ty spaces for cul­tur­al, so­cial and eco­nom­ic ac­tiv­i­ties which, if prop­er­ly de­vel­oped, can be the ba­sis of em­pow­er­ment.

Years ago, the late Lloyd Best de­vel­oped a blue­print for in­te­grat­ing the steel­pan in­to com­mu­ni­ties. His vi­sion of the pa­n­yard as a space for “in­no­va­tion and na­tive en­tre­pre­neur­ship” is still wor­thy of im­ple­men­ta­tion.

So too is a plan de­vel­oped dur­ing the tenure of the Peo­ple’s Part­ner­ship, but since aban­doned, for CEPEP em­ploy­ees to work to­geth­er with Pan Trin­ba­go to up­grade pa­n­yards across the coun­try

A re­vival of that ini­tia­tive can sig­nif­i­cant­ly boost em­ploy­ment and eco­nom­ic prospects in the com­mu­ni­ties where many steel­bands are lo­cat­ed, pro­vid­ing healthy al­ter­na­tives to crime and in­sta­bil­i­ty.

These are im­por­tant de­vel­op­ments to pur­sue in the land of the steel­pan.