Above: Montego Bay

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Jamaica’s government is looking to the country’s Diaspora as it seeks to develop a health tourism sector on the island, according to Minister of State Arnaldo Brown.

Health is “one of the areas that the Diaspora is strongest in,” he said, with Jamaicans abroad making “significant contributions to the health sector through various means, including medical missions and the donation of equipment to hospitals and other facilities.”

In fact, last year there were 132 medical missions to Jamaica, the majority of which were led by member of the Jamaican Diaspora, he said.

A $200 million medical facility project in St James will be spearheaded by the Diaspora, he said.

Last year, Industry Minister Anthony Hylton said improving Jamaica’s medical tourism could improve the country’s local care and potentially lead to employment.

And Tourism Minister Dr Wykeham McNeill told Caribbean Journal at the time that Jamaica was “ideally suited and ideally placed, based on its location, to really get into health tourism in a big way.”