Senator, Hon Pearnel Charles Jr. Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade and who has portfolio responsibility for Diaspora Affairs has announced his intention to spearhead efforts to strengthen collaboration and engagement with the Jamaican Diaspora.
Addressing the UK Diaspora Conference in Leeds on June 16, Senator Charles highlighted the strengthening of communication channels to enable his Ministry to identify and reach Jamaicans in their various locations. The Ministry also has plans to connect with Jamaicans in the wider Caribbean to expand its outreach. A third plank of the new strategy was to streamline activities across all ministries, government departments and state agencies to create a more efficient system for philanthropic donations.
Making reference to the Windrush crisis of recent months Minister Charles outlined the role of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade both in monitoring developments on a constant basis and in working with local stakeholders to identify individuals who may have been deported and are eligible to have their cases reviewed. To date some 30 such cases have been referred to the British High Commission in Kingston. Â He paid homage to those Windrush stalwarts whose sacrifices have gone unheralded and singled out for special mention Mr. Sam King who was instrumental in establishing the Windrush Foundation.
Turning to developments at home in Jamaica, Minister Charles told the audience that in relation to the economy the country had at last turned the corner, pointing as evidence a stable dollar, single digit inflation and falling interest rates. The Planning Institute of Jamaica was forecasting growth of 2.5% for the 2018/19 fiscal year, making Jamaica ripe for investment.
While crime remained a national problem, the country had seen a reduction since the start of the year. Minister Charles made reference to a number of initiatives he had taken during his former tenure as Minister of State in the Ministry of National Security particularly in the area of rehabilitation programmes for youth offenders and urged the Diaspora audience to consider how best they could contribute to this and other youth engagement programmes.
In addition to Crime and Citizen security Minister Charles outlined recent government initiatives in Health, Education, and in Science and Technology. He made special mention of the proposed National Identification System (NIDS) and advised that members of the Diaspora who wished to do business in Jamaica would require a national ID number, for which they could pre-enroll online and then complete on arrival in Jamaica.
