Jamaica - IOM, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Jamaica, will create a Diaspora Business Development toolkit. The kit will provide Jamaicans living overseas with relevant information to facilitate investment or business development in their country of origin.

The initiative to build the toolkit comes from the Mapping Jamaica’s Diaspora project, also implemented by IOM, which found that many Jamaican migrants expressed an interest in establishing businesses in Jamaica and investing in particular sectors. 

“The toolkit will be the first of its kind specifically targeting Jamaicans overseas,” said programme coordinator Rukiya Brown. “It will be a useful and practical mechanism towards providing the diaspora with step by step guidelines on business start-up in Jamaica and suggestions on how to cut through red tape, as well as other useful information.”

Input from the Jamaican diaspora will be requested through a Diaspora Investment Survey. The survey aims to determine how diaspora skills and expertise match with key investment sectors under Jamaica’s priority development areas.

Jamaicans residing overseas who are interested in the survey may visit this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/jamaica-diaspora-business-survey. The survey will be open for submissions until 15 December, 2016.

When ready, the toolkit will be available electronically with printed copies made for distribution to Jamaican consulates and embassies.  Relevant guidance documents, as well as copies or links to the relevant forms that may be required by potential investors, will be included in the toolkit along with a “how to” video. 

The development of this toolkit is part of an IOM project: Effective and Sustainable Diaspora Engagement for Development in the Caribbean (ESDEDC), implemented in Jamaica, Belize, Guyana and Suriname. The initiative seeks to help these countries to tap into the human and financial resources available within the host and home countries. 

For further information please contact Rukiya Brown at IOM Kingston, Tel: +876 968 05 69, Email iomkingston@iom.int