PM Announces New Entity to Strengthen Relations With Diaspora

Prime Minister, the Most Hon. Andrew Holness, has announced that a new entity, Global Connect Jamaica (GloJam), is being established to strengthen the country’s engagements with members of the diaspora.

Mr. Holness said GloJam, which will result from a reshaping of the Jamaica Diaspora Foundation and Jamaica Diaspora Institute, is geared towards encouraging more persons to invest in the country through public-private partnership arrangements.

He emphasised that the new entity is consistent with the Government’s firm commitment to development strategies “which will facilitate a greater involvement of our diaspora in the economic and social growth of Jamaica”.

Mr. Holness was speaking during Tuesday’s (April 4) launch of the Jamaica 55 Diaspora Conference at the Office of the Prime Minister.

He said GloJam’s other objectives include forging and facilitating partnerships involving leading executives, entrepreneurs and professionals in the diaspora with local counterparts, with a view to expanding business opportunities and promoting brand Jamaica globally.

The Prime Minister noted that with approximately three million Jamaicans residing overseas, “our gross domestic product could easily double overnight if we found seamless ways of integrating the economic power of the diaspora into our local economy”.

“So Global Connect Jamaica will lead to stronger connectivity and partnership between our diasporans and Jamaicans locally… and this, we know, will facilitate greater economic growth,” he added.

This year’s seventh staging of the biennial conference is being held under the theme ‘Partnering for Growth’.

The ‘Jamaica 55 Diaspora Conference’, which is being spearheaded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in tandem with several stakeholder partners, will be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, from July 23 to 26.