Generation 2000, the Jamaica Labour Party’s young professional arm, is to launch at least two chapters in the United States by June.

“We are in the process of establishing external chapters, and as we speak work is being done on two (chapters) in the US,” Dr Christopher Tufton, president of the four year-old organisation told the Observer.

The move, he said, is to provide a forum for the estimated 2.5 million Jamaicans living overseas, who have been making significant contributions to the country’s development.

“We feel, as an organisation, that in seeking to enhance the well-being of Jamaica, that having this group of stakeholders out there, it is important that there is a a forum for them,” Dr Tufton argued.

“We believe in creating that forum because the Diaspora is a very important part of the Jamaican society,” the G2K president added, noting that the country last year received an estimated $1.2 billion in remittances from Jamaican nationals living overseas.

The group, he said, also plans to launch other overseas and local chapters in the near future as it moves to strengthen its institutional base and increase its membership.

At the launch of their St James chapter last March, Tufton’s predecessor, Dr Ronald Robinson, had vowed to increase the group’s membership from 4,000 to 20,000 by the end of November 2003.

But since that announcement, the group has only added a handful of persons to its membership, even though it established a parish chapter in neighbouring Trelawny.

G2K vice-president in charge of membership, Ian Hayles, recently told the Observer that the group had failed to meet its membership target mainly because it had to divert its attention to unforeseen political issues.

“We had to channel our energies to the June local government elections, then were involved in preparing for the parish council election in Braeton, (St Catherine) which was postponed because of the death of our (JLP) candidate,” he said.

Shortly after the election was held, Hayles added, G2K members were also engaged in campaigning for their October internal election.

“Then we were helping in the preparation of the JLP’s annual conference, which was held in November,” the G2K vice-president added.

According to Dr Tufton, who has held the presidency since last November, while membership is important, the organisation is now focusing mainly on developing its institutional framework.

“We believe that the institutional framework is important to ensure that we are effective; it’s not just about expansion, it’s about the effectiveness of the group,” Dr Tufton explained.

He added, however, that the group is expecting to double its membership over the next year.

“If we don’t (meet that target) it wouldn’t be considered a failure, because what we hope to do is to ensure that we have an organisation that is able to achieve some of our objectives like have a framework and influencing policies,” he sad.