Capital and Credit Merchant Bank

WISYNCO Trading Limited

Jamaica Mortgage Bank

Jamaica Producers Group Limited

Prime Minister, The Most Hon. P.J Patterson at the opening of the two-day Jamaica Diaspora Conference today (June 16) at the Jamaica Conference Centre downtown Kingston.

It is good to see a long-held wish finally come true...to have this opportunity to welcome all of you, my sisters and brothers, who now make your home in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

I feel compelled to find some very special words to express my pleasure at seeing you here this morning. There is no greater repository than one of our most distinguished daughters who now lives in Canada, Miss Lou. She had something to say for every occasion. Even in these days of political correctness I am prepared to run the risk of being castigated for using the original words of Miss Lou and taking some liberty with it for this occasion to say: "Long time gal and bwoy mi neva see you." I am tempted to burst into song. "Long time we nuh have no nice time."

Whatever I say and whoever I quote this morning, the meaning is the same and those simple words come straight from my heart: To all of you a warm and sincere welcome home!

Commitment and Early Initiatives

For the past twelve years I have had the honour, conferred on me by the Jamaican people, of leading this great nation.

In my inaugural address as Prime Minister, at my first swearing-in ceremony, I committed myself to building a nation without borders, one that includes all our citizens, wherever they may make their home. within or outside our shores.

I have tried to keep faith with that commitment and constantly to ensure that the concerns and interests of Jamaicans in the Diaspora are given the importance and urgency they deserve. I have reiterated this commitment many times. I am not in the habit of quoting myself but as I prepared for this presentation, I could find no better way saying it than I did in my meeting with Jamaicans in the city of Toronto almost exactly five years ago. Here I quote:

"The overwhelming majority of Jamaicans .make a meaningful contribution to economic and social life here and elsewhere - in the professions, in the factories, in offices in hospitals, and on the farms, in churches, in science and technology; in sports and music; and in so doing bring honour to our name."

Along with a reputation for hard work and dedication, there is one strong bond that unites us all, wherever we are placed, that is the memory of our roots - those deep Jamaican roots that are planted deeply in our rich valleys and verdant hills.

"The national family of Jamaicans is one that is blind to geographical borders. Half of us live . outside our shores but this does not separate us from our common ground - our love for our country and our faith in its future."

Those words remain true and relevant as we gather here this morning.

It is this common ground we share, this abiding faith in our country Jamaica and its future. That is what has brought us here to this Conference at which you are going to engage in discussion, deliberation and decision-making.

I know that you will thoroughly enjoy the renewing of old acquaintances, the pleasure of fellowship, and no doubt the formation of new friendships. It is also important that you recognize that your decisions and subsequent actions will have a profound effect on the future development of our nation. The outcome of this august Conference must not be so-so chat. It must make a meaningful contribution to the betterment of all our people both here at home and in the Diaspora.

This is the first Conference of its kind and I deliberately say first, for we intend to make this type of consultation a continuing process. One of the decisions you will be called on to make is not IF, but how frequently, and in what location, similar Conferences should be held in the years to come.

Life in the Diaspora

I think I could say that there is no country in the world where you cannot find Jamaicans. I believe they are in the Arctic and Antarctic. But today's Conference draws its delegates mainly from the three countries where they traditionally have resided. USA, the United Kingdom and Canada. I believe I am going to be getting strong representation, which I will direct to the Foreign Ministry, from those other countries where citizens live particularly in Africa and elsewhere in the Caribbean, who are not participants in this inaugural meeting.
The rapid and overwhelming nature of the response to the invitation to participate in this meeting has come as no surprise to me. It is indicative of your deep interest in your homeland.

I was reading something only last night by one of the newspapers published abroad saying, that this conference, with 250 delegates, was much too small. We probably will have to have the next one in the National Stadium.

As you all realize, the Jamaican Diaspora consists not only of those who actually migrated from here, but of a large number of second and third generation dependents, born in the host countries. I insisted that representatives of the younger generation be included in the respective delegations and I am happy that this has been done.

I know that many of the parents of this new generation seek to instill in them the values and culture of the Jamaican homeland. I see this assertion of our unique cultural identity as nothing short of a sacred trust. It is a precious heritage that must be preserved. It is this identity which provides the new generation with the ability to confront and overcome the many negative alien influences which are a normal part of the migrant experience. By instilling in them, the sense of who they are and the roots from which they spring, we give this new generation a gift of incalculable value.

Too often have we seen the tragic results when this reinforcement is absent.

The migrant community at its best, enjoys the benefit of the positive influences of their adopted home and also enriches the host culture with their own. In some places we seem to have taken over and as is generally said Jamaicans run things. Jamaicans such as our National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey and others of his generation blazed the trail which succeeding generations have followed.

I am greatly heartened by the growing consciousness in more and more of our Jamaicans who reside overseas, however temporary their stay may be (and we know too well how often temporary can become a lifetime!). Today's political environment in these host communities requires however the assertion of your own unique identity. It is the only way to find your legitimate place and so fulfill your full economic, social and spiritual potential. This assertion of your rights redounds to your own benefit and to the benefit of your homeland. It is not by accident that many of those who have only heard about Jamaica, and never seen it, coming from other lands, especially when they run into difficulty and they want some protection, they say they come from Jamaica.

Current Contribution to Jamaica

Despite many years of overseas residence, a large number of Jamaicans, in fact most of you, continue to maintain close links with home through varying types of organizations that for many years have faithfully provided support for the enhancement of Jamaica's socio-economic, cultural and educational life. These organizations consistently maintain very strong relationships with educational institutions, hospitals, homes for the aged, children's homes, churches and communities.

In times of disaster your response has been instantaneous and tremendous.

The continued flow of remittances to Jamaica, whether by way of savings and investment or for support of your families constitute a highly valued economic asset. One of the subjects up for discussion is how best to maximise the benefit of these remittances to Jamaicans in the Diaspora as well as the island's economic development.

I wish once again publicly and on this special occasion, to express my deep appreciation and the gratitude of the entire nation for your practical and invaluable efforts in support of your country and mine.

Aims of the Conference

This Conference is part of a plan of action, which has been developed as a means of providing further direction to the process by which we strengthen our ties and give structure and form to the connection between Jamaicans at home and abroad. It is a very important step as we continue to work together to advance the needs of Jamaicans wherever we may be.

Many of you have kept track of the many initiatives already implemented by my Administration to foster and encourage a coordinated approach to our relationship with the Jamaican overseas community.

We are going to be building here at this conference, on all the earlier initiatives. I expect that the outcome of this conference will represent a giant leap forward.

This conference provides an invaluable opportunity to develop a practical and workable process that will enable us to utilize our diverse skills, our energies and our collective experience for the economic, social and spiritual betterment of all our citizens, both here at home and throughout the Diaspora.

Local Context and Upbeat Environment

What is the context in which this Conference is taking place?

In this technological world of the 21st Century, I know I need not fill you in on the details of world events or local events as through the communication media, including the Internet, you are informed about every event when it happens and as it happens in every part of the world. In fact, sometimes the daily diet of horrors around the globe that we see in our living rooms would totally paralyse us if we did not have faith in humanity.

But not only must we have faith in humanity. We also have to reveal an unshakeable faith in our own ability to meet the challenges of Jamaica today and wherever we may reside. In Jamaica we are well on the way to meeting our main objective - the transformation of the Jamaican economy into one that is knowledge-based, generating value-added exports and sustaining wealth creation with high paying jobs.

We are doing this by using private investment - local, regional and foreign, as a strategic tool to meet our development goals of building human capital, improving productivity, increasing job creation, the transfer of technology and export diversification.

This is not just optimism. It is not what some may regard as political talk. I can say with every confidence this morning that the country's prospects for sustainable economic development have never been better. There has been recovery and growth in several sectors. Whatever the challenges, our national strategy has never abandoned the need to protect the vulnerable and simultaneously to develop the human resources in order to raise the living standard of all our people. This is exactly why the Government has been committed to providing a social safety net for those who are most at risk as well as to fulfil our obligations in the critical areas of health, education and security.

Last fiscal year was admittedly a very challenging one. We have completed it and we have not only survive, we are fit and ready to take on the prospects of growth. With many large investment projects in progress and many others at an advanced stage of negotiation, we are now poised for a period of sustained economic growth, the likes of which we have not seen in Jamaica over the last three decades and to which you can contribute even if you continue to reside abroad.

This is a deserving dividend for the restructuring of the economy which we had undertaken. Our rescue of the financial sector ensured that you did not lose a single dollar invested in approved financial institutions. The regulatory system now in place has brought the financial sector up to world-class standards so that your remittances and savings are safe, secure, guaranteed and profitable.

Our public sector reform programme has created a responsive and much more efficient bureaucracy which has received high marks from international institutions. Our efforts have resulted in our being rated by The World Bank as one of the ten most business-friendly countries in the world. The only developing country to fall within that category.

The modernization and expansion of physical infrastructure such as roads, water supply, sewerage systems, telecommunications, our seaport and airport facilities have laid sound foundations to sustain production, enable expansion that will improve productivity and efficiency.

If there is any one of you who haven't been home for say three years, or even less in some cases, you will be amazed at the progress we have made in the area of physical infrastructure. Talk the truth. The majority of Jamaicans now have ready access to potable water and electricity. The zinc pan and the tinning lamp are things of the past.

As for our road network! Just travel around Kingston and surrounding areas of St. Catherine through Old Harbour! Or try Montego Bay. Just last Saturday I opened a brand new dual carriageway. To say nothing of the North Coast Highway. Air Jamaica Express no longer fly between Negril and Montego Bay, people go by road instead. Take Highway 2000. Go to Port Antonio and visit the Marina. Some of you would have passed through Sangster Airport you saw the new look. I could go on all day!

In the Kingston metropolitan area, you are bound to get lost if you try to drive yourself around. I don't suppose any of you have been here more than twenty-four hours and not seen Emancipation Park!

Then there is Tourism. Our faith in the capacity of our Tourism sector to provide sustainable development and employment is being justified. Visitor arrivals, both stop-over and cruise passengers, continue to break record after record. The sector is surpassing projections in foreign exchange earnings. Jamaica is hot stuff in the marketplace.

The bauxite sector is ready to undertake its largest single investment in our history - US$690 million expansion of the JAMALCO plant. When that is complete it will result in a 20% increase in bauxite revenues over the years to come.

As to the telecommunications situation, well, if you have been home for just over an hour, you will see that cell phones are all about - just like common mango in mango season!

Some Challenges

But while today, we can take justifiable pride in our significant progress, this is not to say that everything is hunky-dory.. Yes, there are challenges. There is still a lot more to be done.

With the advent of globalization, global trade negotiations, if left to run their course, threaten to even further marginalize developing economies such as ours. This means that we must work even harder to achieve more secure access for the exports of our goods and services. Important though they are and will continue to be, we cannot rely simply any longer on the traditionals like sugar and bananas. To achieve our aim we have been following a carefully designed strategy of open regionalism. The principal focus here is to transform CARICOM into a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME). This will create a platform to negotiate external access as a single entity with groupings and countries around the world.

CARICOM partnership is not only valuable in the area of trade. It is the instrument, especially in these days of terrorism and narco-trafficking, of creating a zone of mutual security and development for the entire Caribbean region. Our recent principled and strong united stand on the issue of Haiti was a telling illustration of the power of unity within our region.

As you deliberate and make decisions at this Conference, I would like you to see the outcome as a model for the entire region in which each nation state within CARICOM seeks to maximize the utilization of the talents, resources and contributions of its nationals, whether they reside at home or abroad.

No doubt many of you are concerned with perhaps the most serious challenge we face at this time and that is relating to crime and violence. This comes both by way of the international narcotics trade - another problem which is common to the entire region, but there is also an alarming and deeply troubling incidence of violence at differing levels in our society. We have to deal with these problems ourselves. But in doing so it is not made easier by the fact that some are trying to get rid of their problem by sending people back to Jamaica and not dealing with them as their penal system requires.

And, what is the consequence of that? If people feel that they can commit a crime in another country and they are not going to pay the penalty but they are going to be deported back to Jamaica where we cannot take any punitive action against them, then that is a temptation for them to get involved because they know that there is no penalty.

Another major area of challenge, and I am trying this morning to just tell you as it is. We spoke about the good things and we have to speak about the difficult challenges that we face and we do face difficult challenges and we need and invite your help and your contribution.

Our education system, as well, poses a major challenge. I recently appointed a high level Task Force to make recommendations in the critical area. and if you have any ideas from abroad send them we will welcome them. In the meanwhile a number of innovations are being implemented. The Minister of Education will be meeting with you during the course of this Conference, as will the Minister of National Security, for a full exchange of ideas on these burning issues.

Catch the Spirit!

I truly believe that the best thing that we have going for us right now is the confidence of our people in themselves, our recognition of the fact that when we all work together, whether we live in town or country, whatever our economic status, religious affiliation, political persuasion or gender, we as Jamaicans are a formidable force. As we say we little but we talawah. When we combine our efforts we can face the future with genuine optimism.

This new spirit of partnership among the various sectors is amply demonstrated by the Memorandum of Understanding signed recently between the government, public sector workers and their unions as well as the ongoing discussions between the private sector and Government to develop what we call a Partnership for Progress.

It is in this positive environment, as we see our economic strategy beginning to pay rich dividends, that this Conference has been convened.

The Proposals

On Monday, the Cabinet gave its full support to a number of proposals which will come before you as delegates for consideration. We did not invent these proposals, they were the result of collaboration with a number of stakeholders, including you as stakeholders in the Diaspora, public sector agencies, the private sector, the universities and the returning residents association. These will be put before you for thorough discussion and decision-making.

They cover a wide range of areas and include:

• The establishment of a formal Jamaica Diaspora Foundation to strengthen the links and support systems between Jamaicans residing overseas and those at home. This is intended to deepen the collaboration and cooperation between stakeholder groups that serve them and to facilitate and increase the contribution of the Diaspora to the development of Jamaica;

• We propose to establish and issue a Jamaica Bond Issue, a Government secured financial instrument which would provide reasonable financial returns to be made available to Jamaicans residing overseas who wish to invest in Jamaica.
• We are amenable to the establishment of an annual Diaspora Day which you and us can observe and celebrate together;
• It is proposed to establish of Trade Consuls throughout the Diaspora;
• You don't have to tell me. I have seen it for myself when I visit Embassies and Consulates abroad. The present system and process to deal with passport is too long and tedious - hence there are
• Proposals for improvement in the management of and delivery of passport services overseas and you will hear about those at the appropriate time in the conference. But, particularly in these days, there are many people who believe that a Jamaican passport constitutes their best form of protection.

Knowing my fellow Jamaicans as I do, I know that there is going to be vigorous debate, that many of you will be passionate I expect you to be vociferous, and I know some of you may even be contentious as you express your views.

But I am confident that as you meet in this positive environment, you too will catch the vibes, and that when this Conference is over, you will leave here having been part of creating a strategy, arriving at a consensus for a mechanism that will further strengthen the ties between us here at home and you who make your home overseas, while, as always, carrying the flag of Jamaica high.

I am in no doubt that by the close of play, we will have forged yet another dynamic partnership that will make life better for all Jamaicans in one single nation without borders.

Even as you engage in serious business do not fail to enjoy your return to the rock.

Let us determine as we forge this symbiotic partnership to unleash the full potential of our nation and the creative talent of our people.

May God guide you in your deliberations. May He take you safely back home and may He continue to pour his blessings on Jamaica, this beautiful land we all love.

I have great pleasure in formally declaring this first conference of the Jamaican Diaspora officially open.