JAMAICA’S foreign ministry has named a seven-member advisory board of Jamaicans living abroad as part of new, aggressive moves by the government to deepen the country’s economic and political links with Jamaicans in the Diaspora, it was disclosed yesterday.

The members of the board were elected by delegates attending this week’s Diaspora conference hosted by the Jamaican Government and according to junior foreign minister, Delano Franklyn, the board will have a real say in influencing domestic and foreign policy.

“The government will not sign off on any policy or programmes without consulting members of the board,” Franklyn told reporters yesterday.

The two-day conference, which ended Thursday, pulled together 350 delegates – 100 of them being Jamaicans who live on the island. The remainder were from the United States, Britain and Canada, the countries with the largest populations of Jamaican immigrants and their descendants.

There are 2.6 million Jamaicans living at home and officials estimate that an equal number live abroad and Prime Minister P J Patterson is keen to tap into what is seen as a potentially rich source of investment capital and political influence.

Already, Jamaicans abroad send home about US$1 billion a year, just behind what the island earns from its major industry, tourism, and ahead of what is brought in by the bauxite/alumina industry.

On Thursday, the conference approved a resolution giving the go-ahead to launch a Diaspora bond to help finance projects at home, but the features of the bond, including its size and specific use, are yet to be worked out.

The conference also mandated the government to establish a Jamaica Diaspora Foundation, part of whose job will be to promote private sector links between Jamaicans at home and overseas and strengthen other bonds between the two grounds of Jamaicans.

The foundation, it is expected, will operate under the aegis of the Mona School of Business (MSB) at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).

The MSB’s former head, Professor Gordon Shirley, has just been appointed Jamaica’s ambassador to the United States, which sent the largest block of delegates to the Diaspora conference.

But apparently, it is the undertaking on the advisory board that is most advanced of the decisions taken at the conference.

Franklyn said that it will meet twice yearly, have access to government agencies, including the finance ministry, and will be able to bring to the table issues and concerns relating to Jamaicans in the Diaspora. In addition, it will make proposals and recommendations as it relates to government.

“The life of the board will be for two years (until) when we have our next conference,” Franklyn said.

Among the other decisions taken by the conference was for the eventual establishment of trade councils in communities where Jamaicans live abroad and to set up passport production centres in New York, Miami, Toronto and London – cities with a heavy concentration of Jamaicans.

For now, the government wants to cut the waiting period for Jamaican passports for people living in these countries to no more than five weeks, from the several months that is sometimes the case. Jamaicans abroad often complain about the long time it takes to get Jamaican passports.

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD ARE:

US:

. Dr Harold Mignott

. Dr Lascelles Anderson

. Mrs Dahlia

Walker-Harlington

CAN:

. Phillip Mascoll

. Sharon Abrahams

UK:

. Paulette Simpson

. Travis Johnson