Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, on Friday launched the Guyana Diaspora Project (GUYD) at the Embassy of Guyana in Washington, DC.
A release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday noted that the GUYD project is designed to compile data about the resources, skills and level of interest available in the Guyanese diaspora.
The release said that persons and organizations who wish to assist in Guyana’s development can tender their information online through a dedicated website or via social media. The information would allow for skills and resources in the diaspora to be matched to development needs here.
Rodrigues-Birkett told the gathering, “We cannot develop 83,000 square miles with 800,000 people.” She said that the Government was moving away from “viewing emigration primarily as a brain drain and was viewing it as an opportunity to extend the available development resources beyond Guyana’s confines.”
Government is engaged in the GUYD with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and it has been launched in several other cities with large diaspora populations. Critics say that the government has been late in systematically trying to tap the skills of Guyanese abroad.
The release said that Head of the Guyana country office for IOM, Rui Reis explained the role of the organization in working along with the Government to design and implement the project, which he said was receiving favourable responses. The IOM made a visual presentation explaining how the data would be collected and utilised.
The release said that the Minister fielded a variety of questions about the goals of the project, as well as current issues of interest. She pointed to health, education and information technology as some of the areas which could benefit from the project.
The project was originally launched in New York by President Donald Ramotar last September and subsequently inaugurated by Rodrigues-Birkett in Toronto, Canada, and London, England.
