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THE VOICE OF THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS By Sase Singh INTRODUCTIONOn April 8th 2016, I was invited as one of the panelists to a symposium in Washington DC to commemorate Guyana’s 50th Independence Anniversary.  I must extend my gratefulness to Floyd Haynes, Paul Tennessee and Melanie Smith, and their friends, for bringing us all together to share thoughts on this relationship between the Diaspora and the Locals.I was asked to present my position on this topic – “the Role of the Diaspora – A Framework for Collaboration at a Diaspora Conference” at the symposium that was held at the University of the District of Colombia in Washington DC.The following is an abridged version of my presentation.BACKGROUNDAccording to a USAID Report, the Guyanese Diaspora is sized at some 700,000 persons which is just less than the population at home.  That report referred to Guyana as a nation of migrants. Guyana for the last 50 years has failed to unleash its potential for a number of reasons,NFL Jerseys Outlet From China, including the failure of the nation to effectively harness the energies of enough of our brightest and best. The big challenge to our nation as a result of this migration is that the academic quality of the migrant population is very high.According to a statement from the sitting Minister of Education, more than 80 percent of our university graduates are migrating from Guyana annually.You cannot mould a nation with four out of five of your university graduates not contributing to the process.  You just cannot!  You cannot grow a developing nation at rates of 6 – 8 percent with an average of 4,000 persons of the best quality permanently and legally leaving Guyana for the United States every year.  But the United States is not the top destination for our migrant population.  The top destinations, according to a United Nations report, remain Suriname, Brazil, Trinidad, then the UK and the United States, closely followed by Canada.WHAT THE DIASPORA HAS TO OFFERAs a collective, our Guyanese Diaspora has much to offer including:1.     Finance using many different types of investment vehicles.2.     Talent in many different kinds of fields.3.     Networks or connections or hook-ups as we call it.4.     Access to new technology.5.     Access to more efficient work ethics.6.     Access to new markets for Made in Guyana products.WHAT THE DIASPORA BRINGS TO THE TABLE1.     The technical “know-how” to catalyze Guyana’s needs to urgently industrialize our agricultural base as a revenue generator, especially for foreign markets.2.     Access to knowledge to accelerate the reformation of our justice, security and public service.3.     Access to knowledge to enhance good governance and strengthen public institutions.4.     Partnerships with the private sector, so that it can expand and take its place as the engine of growth.5.     Being one of the key stimulators of human and economic development.SOME SOLUTIONSIn its manifesto, the ruling Coalition promised the following in May 2015:1.     An enterprise and economic development policy that provides a level playing field for local entrepreneurs and investors and our huge Diaspora to develop our abundant resources.2.     Diaspora Integration – APNU+AFC will implement a series of incentives to attract this talent and their wealth in the development of Guyana.3.     APNU+AFC will establish Diaspora desk offices at its Embassies and High Commissions in New York, Toronto, London and the Caribbean to solicit investments and entrepreneurial and other skills to develop Guyana.The honest answer: not done, not even in progress in some cases.The lessons to be learnt from this are that the solutions are not being framed in an environment of collaboration.  It is more a situation that the policy makers in the Coalition Government think they know it all, and this has caused them to shut themselves off from high quality talent, finance and networks, that has resulted in sub-optimal delivery on the promises made to the people in 2015.WHAT CAN BE DONE THAT CAN MOVE THIS COLLABORATION PROCESS ALONG?1.     Gathering of the data and inventorizing the Diaspora – both the legal immigrants and illegal immigrants as potential investors using a special purpose vehicle such as Diaspora Bonds that will offer greater returns on what is on offer in the developed world.  So let us start this process with the North American Diaspora.  Also, this Database can serve as an access point to tap skills on a paid consultancy basis rather than exclusively full-time jobs for those who want to contribute.2.     Inventorize all the Guyanese associated organizations – all the Village Associations, Political Associations,NFL Jerseys Outlet, religious organizations, ex-police etc. as mobilisers of contributors to fill gaps in the developmental process.  Right now we have a national suicide crisis in Guyana and many Diaspora Groups are committed to helping but their efforts have resulted in many situations where they are literally crawling over each other in a most haphazard, disjointed manner that may not be delivering the intended outcome for those with the greatest needs.3.     Make available to Diaspora members a special NRG Passport Card – which can be a revenue generator for the Guyanese State.  In addition to national pride,NFL Jerseys Supply, these cards offers certain privileges such as access to weekly updates on a Diaspora Knowledge Network,Authentic NFL Jerseys Wholesale China, which highlights opportunities such as discount rates on tourist activities, access to advertised vacancies in Guyana, access to tender for the supply of goods and services in Guyana and special access to GO-Invest on all legal investment ideas.  This will also grant you automatic invites to an annual Diaspora Conference to be held in one of the major Diaspora population centres,Authentic NFL Jerseys Wholesale, along with invites to National Activities and Conferences, in and out of Guyana,Jerseys NFL Wholesale China Online, on all major developmental issues.4.     Establish an online Diaspora University as part of UG.  This will allow for the Diaspora to fill technical gaps at UG by offering their skills in specialized areas.  These classes will be conducted on-line with a once per semester fully paid stint for the Diaspora participant in person at UG to do direct face-to-face teaching for a full week with the students.  The focus will be on the transfer of knowledge in the pure sciences, mathematics, agriculture science and engineering.5.     Establish a Guyanese community welfare fund that will be managed by a team of Diaspora philanthropists who shall be elected every year from contributing shareholders. These funds will be used to offer scholarships, medical assistance and other social intervention for the at-risk population.6.     Establish a Global Advisory Think Tank that will be a collaboration effort between Guyanese-based policy makers and members of the Diaspora and work on ideas that can help to unleash clogs in the developmental process.  For example – how to financially structure the energy model that will transform Guyana from a 90 percent fossil fuel energy producer today into a 50 percent renewable energy producer in 10 years’ time.Ideas on how to structure the Diaspora Bond or framing how to better channel remittances for national development or setting up of a State Development Bank can all be investigated using this Think Tank which will have access to an international talent-base.CONCLUSIONThis contribution seeks to examine how we can use the best practices from around the world to better construct a framework for collaboration between the Diaspora and the Locals by establishing clear ground rules on how the Diaspora can play a more integrated but non-intrusive growth-related role in Guyana’s human development.  Can we do it; yes we can!