I was pleasantly surprised by the reactions to my column last week, headlined ‘Can Jamaicans and the private sector contribute more to growth?’, especially the invitations to be a guest on two different morning radio shows in Jamaica last week to discuss the topics in more detail.

Most Jamaicans seem to believe that “foreigners” get special concessions that are not made available to locals or Jamaicans living overseas. I am yet to find actual evidence of this, but clearly any government in power must do more to combat that perception, otherwise we will continue to see pieces of the country divested and few Jamaicans stepping up to acquire these entities just because they believe they will not get equal treatment.

I did write a little about Overseas Jamaicans and the need for more communication through all available channels, but I barely provided any suggestions. It is interesting that the Bank of Jamaica recently released its Remittance Survey 2010 results which can give us a fairly reasonable estimate of the gross income of Jamaicans abroad. For 2008, before the financial crisis and global recession, remittances totalled US$2.02 billion, two per cent more than tourism expenditure, 29 per cent more than money earned from exports and 41 per cent more than foreign direct investment.

If we assume that the Diaspora is not sending back more than 20 per cent of their earnings, that results in a gross income of US$11 billion per year. Of course, not every Jamaican living overseas is sending back money, so the gross income figure is most likely more. This kind of number should make Jamaicans living abroad a highly sought after investment group.

In 2007, when Ethiopia was seriously looking at courting its Diaspora to invest in the country, a proposal was put forward to create an ‘Ethiopia Diaspora Investment and Export Centre’ that would serve as a “one-stop shop that collects various relevant information and be a facilitation agent of the Diaspora’s investment and export needs”, something that sounds somewhat similar to JAMPRO (Jamaica Trade and Invest) but focused exclusively on Overseas Ethiopians.

A survey of some members of the Ethiopian Diaspora was included in a presentation by Addi Alemayehou that listed the main constraints that they perceived and which led to them not investing in Ethiopia (see the presentation by scanning the qr code included with this article or going to www.bit.ly/ethiopiadiaspora).

The most significant perceived constraints were: lack of information on regulations, lack of information on business opportunities, lack of infrastructure, business environment, and difficulty in accessing government bodies. These sound like most of the ones I have heard time and again from the Jamaicans abroad.

The interesting thing is that JAMPRO “guides investors through the necessary steps to making their projects possible, walks them through the approvals process and stays with them even after their investments are operational”. It is our one-stop shop and has facilitated many investments in Jamaica.

How many Overseas Jamaicans know that right now there is a tender opportunity for a ‘Concessionaire for Rafting on the Rio Grande’? One visit to www.jamaicatradeandinvest.org would have alerted you to this business opportunity. Some will say that this is not enough since more can be done, and I do agree that more can be done, but there is a wealth of information available on that website in regards to doing business in Jamaica, opportunities that are available, and even the ability to submit your own projects to be promoted to potential investors.

For ideas regarding what more could be done I had to look no further than the country with the second-largest Diaspora population — India. To understand for how serious the Indian Government is about getting its Diaspora to invest in the development of the country, one has only to heed the words of Prime Minister Singh: “I invite you, Overseas Indians, to make use of the investment and business opportunities that India now offers. This is the time for all of us to become strategic partners in India’s progress.” I found that quote at the top of the website for the Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC), www.oifc.in.

The Indian Government did not just talk the talk, it walked the walk by setting up OIFC and providing the tools to facilitate communication. The website allows you to register to become part of the ‘India Investment community’, ask questions and get answers from experts, learn about policies and procedures for investing in India and even subscribe to a monthly newsletter on current investment opportunities and trends in India.

I propose that a section be implemented within JAMPRO that becomes an Overseas Jamaican Facilitation Centre specifically focused on targeting the Diaspora for investment in Jamaica. India clearly felt that the Diaspora required special targeting and I believe that Jamaica needs the same thing.

Sceptics may say that if Overseas Jamaicans are not visiting the current JAMPRO website to find out about business opportunities, why would they visit a new section or another website built along the lines of OIFC? But I would reply that the current JAMPRO site, while very good, does not provide the same kind of information or tools right now as the OIFC website. If it did, maybe more Overseas Jamaicans would know about the Rafting on the Rio Grande opportunity.

Any business with limited resources must choose wisely in the way it uses capital. The same goes for countries. A government must seek to invest where the return on investment is expected to be higher. Tourism generates less money than remittances to Jamaica, yet we have tourist board offices all over the world. When I attended the University of Miami there was an office across the street, one in Orlando and one in New York. Getting Overseas Jamaicans to invest in Jamaica could reap more than tourism, but outside of Jamaica we have one JAMPRO office in Canada and one in England.

It would seem that we should at least have the same number of offices dedicated to generating investment in Jamaica as we have for generating tourism. It would be even smarter to share the space and split the costs between the two entities, thus saving money. Yes, JAMPRO makes use of embassy facilities, but that is still less than what the Jamaica Tourist Board presently does.

Having won the 2007 award for ‘Best Trade Promotion Organisation from a Small Country’, JAMPRO most certainly knows what it is doing and if a division is dedicated to targeting Overseas Jamaicans in the way that India is, I have no doubt that less of Jamaica will have to end up in the hands of non-Jamaicans.

I speak fondly of JAMPRO because of my experiences with that agency in the past, especially being guided by Del Crooks when I wanted to learn more about the film industry and how we would go about getting projects off the ground when I was ready. More Overseas Jamaicans need to be made aware of the one-stop shop and I believe the best way for that is to target that group specifically.

The Jamaican Diaspora needs to be seen as more than just remittance senders, potential donors to political parties and a source of charity. One way is to learn from India and start to facilitate and communicate more with Overseas Jamaicans.

David Mullings is the Future Leaders Representative for the USA on the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board. He is on Twitter at twitter.com/davidmullings and Facebook at facebook.com/InteractiveDialogue