Industry & Commerce Minister Aubyn Hill, speaking at the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament on Thursday
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Industry Minister Senator Aubyn Hill has defended the J$234 million set aside to repay the producers of the Bob Marley biopic.
Senator Hill faced questions in the standing Finance Committee meeting about the monetary value derived from the movie.
A rebate of US$1.5 million was agreed between the government and the producers as an incentive for part of the filming to take place in Jamaica.
Senator Hill, in response, asserted that the level of investment outweighed the money to be paid to the producers.
"We employed 1800 people for six months; we had 400 direct employees for the movie," he explained.
Furthermore, he revealed that "they renovated a school or two in Trench Town."
He told the Committee that the producers of the film had the option of moving the production to Trinidad & Tobago or The Dominican Republic, which would have meant Jamaica losing all those benefits.
"We got a movie about Bob Marley, largely made in Jamaica, and we got the kind of brand exposure that we could never get otherwise, and we have Paraount being an advocate for making films in Jamaica," he said.
This expenditure should be regarded as "an investment, not a spend, and we think it's well invested," he asserted.
The bill has not yet been submitted by Paramount, he said, explaining that "part of the deal we have is that we have to have audited numbers with the inoices before we pay."
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