Daily Star.com.lb – Federica Marsi – BEIRUT: Prime Minister Saad Hariri raised the importance of renewing ties between the country and the Lebanese diaspora, at the launch of a new virtual network of entrepreneurs, businesspeople and creative minds Thursday. Diaspora ID – designed by the private company Netways and financed by a $1 million grant from USAID – seeks to virtually connect Lebanese entrepreneurs outside and inside the country, thus spawning mutually beneficial business relationships. “Diaspora ID has created an unimaginable opportunity for Lebanese at home and abroad. Its possibilities are endless,” Prime Minister Hariri said at the launch event held Thursday at the Grand Serail. “It has created a new IT solution and used cutting-edge artificial intelligence to capitalize on the enormous potential of the Lebanese diaspora to contribute to employment and economic growth in Lebanon,” Hariri added.

A video presentation of the project showed a world map of connected dots, representing Lebanese expats, located geographically with a pin containing the platform’s symbol – a bird with spread wings. No part of the world lacked its fair share of pins, each labeled with a Lebanese name. The Lebanese diaspora is estimated to be in the range of 14 million people – several times larger than the Lebanese population of the country. According to Hariri, many expats maintain an emotional bond with their native country and would be eager to give back to it and contribute to its development. “I am here today because I believe in your power, the power of today’s innovators and the power of Lebanon’s diaspora,” he said.

Engineer and Netways Managing Partner Rola Mousa conceived of the platform as a way to give back after having lived for a long time outside of the country. “I had a dream to provide the Lebanese with a similar opportunity,” she said at the launch event Thursday. As Mousa explained, the platform will serve several functions. By listing their companies on the platform, users inside and outside Lebanon can describe their services and their needs and be matched to users with a complementary profile. The platform will also provide users abroad with information on the history of their ancestral villages in Lebanon. “This will serve particularly medium and small companies, which represent 93 percent of businesses in Lebanon,” Mousa said.

She echoed Hariri, saying that many Lebanese nationals living outside the country share her eagerness to contribute to their homeland. Consequently, Diaspora ID also provides the opportunity for skilled individuals in a variety of sectors to offer virtual training to similar businesses in Lebanon that might be in need guidance and expert advice. “This is what I call ‘brain circulation,’” Mousa said, adding that the transfer of knowledge facilitated by the platform will give the Lebanese diaspora an easy and quick way to contribute to Lebanon’s development.

U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Elizabeth Richard welcomed Diaspora ID, saying that many “great Americans maintain a profound connection to Lebanon because of family, friends and a deep sense of cultural heritage.” Richard cited a number of American nationals of Lebanese origin whose contributions are highly valued by the U.S., including scientist Elias James Corey, Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea and four sitting members of Congress.

“That’s why we are so pleased to help launch this very innovative social network called Diaspora ID,” Richard said. “[The platform will] help them turn their general sense of wanting to help their home country into concrete opportunities to create jobs, to raise funds for local projects, to provide online mentoring for young people, to market and purchase the products of Lebanese small businesses [and] make a positive change back home.”