…to focus on diaspora diplomacy & enhancing direct diaspora investments in 2023

By Frederick Halley
EXECUTIVE Director of the Diaspora and Remigration Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Rosalinda Rasul, has lauded the performance of the entity in 2022, notwithstanding the challenges.

Addressing members of the Guyanese Canadian for Unity (GCU) and invitees during the association’s first anniversary celebrations, held virtually on Wednesday night, Rasul told the gathering that “we were able to identify what we can do to improve the efficiency of not just the unit, but also in the way other agencies for the diaspora work to help deliver quality service.”

Rasul, who was also part of the launching of the GCU last year, pointed out that the unit had a very good year in terms of engagement with the diaspora, which included investment initiatives, training and projects which totalled over 1,000 and they are working to quantify those which can be quantified in terms of cost to the country.

“We have had projects that have ranged in the vicinity of five million Canadian dollars, some of them one hundred and fifty million US dollars and we are working to quantify them and also accounting for the number of Guyanese that have been involved in these investments in Guyana.”

According to Rasul, “we have had persons in the USA who have actually opened training schools in high quality welding and fabricating and we are very excited about that. Interestingly, we’ve got quite a lot of investments coming out of Canada and as Guyanese Canadians you should be very proud of that…”

Rasul referred to Paul Diaram, who specialises in road construction in Canada but is back in Guyana lending his expertise in a similar field. She pointed out that he has been doing an amazing job since establishing base in his homeland.

Rasul disclosed that her unit is currently doing an analysis of the remigration patterns over the last decade, “so that will be quite an interesting thing to see what the conclusions are with that study in terms of assessment.

“For last year, we have received a lot of applications from people across the globe who are interested in working in Guyana and of course those who are rendering their services on a pro bono basis, whether through volunteerism or working on a short-term stint in various agencies that would require their skills.”

For 2023, Rasul said, “we are going to enhance an initiative we started late last year, which is working with our agencies here in Guyana, for training in the area of customer service and delivery to our diaspora that will benefit the public at large. We have partnered with some public sector entities as well as some members of the diaspora who are quite keen on what we are doing in the area of training.”

According to the Diaspora Unit head, “we want to focus strategically on the diaspora rather than to have a broad objective. We have actually narrow them down to some very key areas that we are going to focus on – The Diaspora Diplomacy and Enhancing Direct Diaspora Investments.”

She pointed out that the diaspora is well positioned in lots of sectors and able to influence and shape ideas and so forth; “we want to enhance that even more, utilise our diaspora when it comes to diplomacy, and pushing lots of projects out. For example, we still have our border issues before the ICJ and our diaspora has been very critical in bringing that awareness and that has been very helpful thing for us here in Guyana.”

On the area of Enhancing Direct Diaspora Investments, Rasul disclosed that her agency has been painstakingly going through the 2023 Budget Speech, presented by Minister of Finance, Dr Ashni Singh and also the presentations from the other ministers.

Rasul also pointed out that in 2023, “we are also going to reach out to the younger generation, young people of Guyanese heritage in Canada, USA, UK and other parts of the world, because the youths have massive potential to contribute to Guyana’s development, so we want to get them on board.”

Guyana’s Consul General (ag) to Toronto, Grace Joseph, who was also present, congratulated the GCU on its first anniversary, pointing out that the Consulate is happy to support the initiative of the group and looks forward to continued collaboration to foster ties among the Guyanese community in Toronto, Canada.

Joseph commended the GCU for focusing on heritage preservation of the Guyanese Canadian community for Guyanese in Canada to interact and to share the experience of being part of the Guyanese Canadian community in Toronto and it also provides its members the opportunity to give back to Guyana.

GCU President, Janet Naidu, who chaired the proceedings, pointed to the fact that the association, in its second year, is developing initiatives gradually and hope others will join in these initiatives.

“I just want to share that even though we have left the shores of our birth country, as Guyanese Canadians, we continue to come together as a community.

“We not only gather to enjoy everything Guyanese, but we also have that giving back spirit deeply rooted in us. We formed this organisation to continue to foster a similar social engagement in our community. We continue to be patriotic Guyanese living in Canada as Canadians. We are proud of the diversity of our heritage.”

Janet informed that the GCU has started an initiative to help provide support to children in Guyana and is in discussion with a couple of Children’s Homes there to provide counselling sessions via Zoom.