KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Anthony Hylton has said that the just concluded Jamaican Diaspora Conference was an “overwhelming success”.
According to Senator Hylton, who was speaking at the post-Conference press briefing yesterday (June 16), said the forum had provided a platform for Jamaicans in the Diaspora to air their views and put forward suggestions as to how the Diaspora movement could become stronger, as well as assist in improving the welfare of the country.
“The proceedings established a number of ways in which the Diaspora has contributed and more importantly can contribute. We very often focus on the remittances as the main identification with the Diaspora [but] through this conference. We look to the Diaspora to provide other critical inputs to the development process,” he noted.
“The entire two days,” he continued, “reaffirms the commitment of the Jamaican Diaspora through their representatives, in their concern for and their commitment to their homeland and I think that message came through very clearly in the entire proceeding.”
Senator Hylton also said that the announcement by Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, to establish a Parliamentary Joint Select Diaspora Committee, was proof that the Government regarded the Diaspora as critical in the development process, as the Committee would provide the institutional framework through which issues pertaining to the Diaspora would be discussed at the highest level.
In the meantime, Minister of State in the Ministry, Senator Delano Franklin informed that 23 resolutions were passed at the Conference to include the selection of a new Diaspora Advisory Board, which would guide the work of the Diaspora community, in conjunction with the government through the Ministries and missions that exist overseas.
Other decisions taken, he noted, included the hosting of the next Diaspora Conference on June 16 and 17 2008 and the hosting of Conferences in Diaspora territories prior to the main Conference in 2008.
Other resolutions passed included, placing education as a priority item on the agenda of the next Conference; the establishment of a Diaspora Fund, and the inclusion of more young people in the process.
Participants in this year’s Conference included delegates from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Latin America, Africa and CARICOM countries.
“I am extremely confident as to the outcome of the Conference,” Senator Franklin noted, “and I believe that delegates are now more energized than ever, they have been charged with the responsibility out of the Conference to establish structures and mechanisms to involve as many Jamaicans living overseas as possible in the discussions regarding Jamaica and Diasporic relations.”
The Jamaican Diaspora Conference was held from June 15 to 16 at the Jamaica Conference, downtown, under the theme: ‘Unleashing the Potential’.
