KINGSTON, Jamaica – (JIS) Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding is to head an impressive line-up of speakers with the keynote address at the 2008 Third Biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference, to be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston from June 16-17.
Among the other speakers are: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Dr. Ken Baugh; Leader of the Opposition, Portia Simpson-Miller; and Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator Dr. Ronald Robinson.
Under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, the two-day conference boasts five workshops that are intended to address a number of issues, including crime and justice, education and culture, the role of the Church, economic growth, and young persons in the Jamaican Diaspora.
Under the theme, ‘Crime and Justice: Partnerships for Harmony and Peace’, this workshop will be facilitated by Professor Anthony Harriott, Head of the Department of Government at the University of the West Indies. Presenters include Minister of National Security, Senator Colonel Trevor MacMillan and Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Senator Dorothy Lightbourne.
Among other notable presenters are: Commissioner of Police, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, who will speak on ‘National Security: The Way Forward’; Justice Hugh Small, Former Justice of the Supreme Court of The Bahamas, who will address the theme: ‘Justice Delayed is Justice Denied: The Imperatives for Reform of the Justice System’; Minister of Education, Andrew Holness; Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce, Karl Samuda; and several private sector leaders here and in the Jamaican Diaspora.
The conference will be open to the media for the first time, and accreditation for local and foreign journalists has started. Journalists are advised to apply online, using the prescribed form which can be found on the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) website at www.jis.gov.jm.
