THE Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade remains confident that it will stage a successful 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference in June despite the controversy surrounding a group which has registered the name and is reportedly planning a similar conference for the same date and venue.

The group, led by former member of the Jamaica Defence Force Dr Rupert Francis, is made up mainly of Jamaicans living in the United States and has caused a rift in the Diaspora, with fear that its formation could impact participation in the official conference.

But addressing a post-Cabinet media briefing on Wednesday Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith declared that all is in place for a bumper conference.

“It has always been big but this year it is going to be bigger. It has always been great but this year it will be greater,” said an upbeat Johnson Smith while making no reference to the competing conference.

She told the media briefing that preparation for the conference — which will be held under the theme ‘United for Jamaica’s Transformation: Fostering Peace, Productivity and Youth Empowerment’ — has been going smoothly with strong interest from Jamaicans in the Diaspora.

“The goal of the conference is to facilitate…broader idea exchange, leveraging Diaspora insights for actionable solutions and forging strategic partnerships beneficial to both Jamaica and the Diaspora,” said Johnson Smith.

“The conference also serves as a critical tool to inform local policies and development strategies through collaborative solutions which culminate in concrete actions and post-conference action plans for implementation. So what this means is that through our conferences, which are held every two years, more Jamaicans, with more ideas, more talent, and more resources, come to the table for us to work together.

“We are anticipating welcoming a good group of persons from far and wide across the Diaspora because now we are engaging with our members in continental Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and as far away as Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, as well as our traditional families from the USA, Canada and the UK,” added Johnson Smith.

She was supported by under secretary for the Diaspora, Consular and Protocol Division of the ministry Ariel Bowen who told the post-Cabinet media briefing that the conference programme will have a strong investment focus.

“Because we want to encourage Diasporians, who over the years have been asking about, ‘what’s in it for me?’ [to see] that there are opportunities to come to Jamaica and find out where the investment opportunities are for them,” said Bowen.

She noted that the long-standing agenda items such as health, education and philanthropy will remain on the agenda this year with national security also to be discussed.

“We know the Diaspora want to share ideas about solutions for our security issues and so we have that on the agenda,” added Bowen.

But people in the group led by Francis have argued that they were forced to act to get the Jamaican Government to engage more with the Diaspora on issues such as corruption, crime, violence, and the need for improvements to the island’s health-care system.

Some in the group have called for the official conference to be boycotted entirely, while others are backing the alternative gathering on the same dates and at the same venue.

Tension between the Government and the group of nationals heightened last Thursday when it emerged that the name Global Jamaica Diaspora Council, which the Government recognises, had been registered in the US by the opposing faction.

“The registration took place in the state of Florida, and we are now moving to have it registered in other states as well as with the Internal Revenue Service [IRS],” said a member of the group who was authorised to speak anonymously to the Observer.

The spokesperson was confident that “once registration with the IRS is completed, current office holders of the [official] Global Jamaica Diaspora Council will no longer be able to operate as such”.

Francis has since explained that his group is not having a parallel event, but instead, one after the foreign ministry-backed event, to review the earlier conference.

In an interview on Nationwide News Network on Monday, Francis said he was neither promoting nor seeking to retard the 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference.

He said his group was focused on reviewing on spot what happens at the upcoming conference after that event and introducing some solutions that they think are appropriate at this time.