Jamaican diplomat slams Yetming

THE JAMAICAN High Commissioner to Trinidad and Tobago yesterday added his voice in condemning UNC Member of Parliament for St Joseph and former Finance Minister Gerald Yetming, for “impugning the reputation” of Michael Lee Chin, a Jamaican business tycoon. He said Yetming had damaged the reputation of not only Lee Chin, but the entire financial sector in Jamaica and expressed hope that “in due course” Yetming will reconsider his comments and retract his statements. In a statement issued by High Commissioner Lorne McDonnough, he said as “the voice of the Jamaican Government in Trinidad and Tobago,” he had to express his “consternation and concern at the unfortunate and arbitrary statement” made by Yetming in the House of Representatives last Friday. He said Yetming’s statements were not well received by the Jamaican business community. However they will not be deterred, “understanding that the economic relationship between Jamaica and TT transcends personalities and is only sustainable in the longer term if exports and investments flow in both directions.”

He noted that the “vigour of the political environment has often precipitated comments and evolved positions that, in the end, do not serve the more critical mission of deepening our region’s economic relationship and forging a true Caribbean consensus, which was urgent and necessary, and demands both commitment and comity.” The High Commissioner said that in “one fell swoop Mr Yetming impugned the reputation of a valued member of the Jamaican business community, and by extension, slandered the Jamaican private sector, the Bank of Jamaica and the operation of the entire financial sector in Jamaica.” He described Yetming’s allegations as a “reckless assertion” which he was certain Yetming won’t repeat “beyond the sanctity and protection” of Parliament. He said it was even more regrettable that the allegations were made by Yetming, especially since he was the former Finance Minister and “businessman who spearheaded the negotiations of a major TT company, which has made a substantial and lucrative investment in the banking sector in Jamaica.”

He said he had no doubt that Lee Chin had the capacity to deal with “the extreme and damaging unsubstantiated comments,” but for his part he regretted that Yetming’s allegations dismissed the commitment regional governments, including the UNC when it was in power, have made to the deepening and widening of economic integration in the Caribbean. McDonnough added that Yetming’s allegations discounted the very principles and provisions underpinning the vision of a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), and represented a retrograde step both to the spirit and tenets of the CSME. The High Commissioner said that “unfortunately Yetming has pronounced the TT financial sector as off-limits to Jamaican investment, which was a clear abrogation of the very rationale which buttresses our ongoing regional pursuit of an economically integrated Caribbean.”

He also said that in the spirit of the Grand Anse Accord, the Jamaican government accords all Caricom citizens national treatment, and in that respect, Jamaica had granted “more Trinidad and Tobago nationals residence status in accordance with the provisions of the free movement of Caricom nationals than any other Caricom member state.” The High Commissioner pointed out that it was also important to recognise that current TT private sector investment in Jamaica exceeded US$1,345 million in various sectors of the Jamaican economy, and was therefore a clear testament to the confidence which characterises the present investment climate. McDonnough said in addition to welcoming TT investment capital, Jamaica continued to be the second most important market for TT exports after the US.

He said in 2001, at least 33 percent of all TT exports to Caricom or slightly over TT$2.3 billion found a market in Jamaica. In 2002, he said the figure increased to 37.5 percent and it was expected that the figures for last year would show that the Jamaican market was no less important to TT’s private sector and thousands of our nationals who depend on the their market for jobs. Yetming last Friday charged that a Government minister had received an undisclosed sum of money to facilitate a plan involving 20 percent of First Citizens Bank (FCB) being sold to Lee Chin and his Canadian based-mutual fund company, AIC Ltd. Yetming also claimed that the controversial idea to merge the UTC and FCB did not originate in Trinidad nor from the mind of FCB chairman Ken Gordon. He said, “The idea was born in Jamaica. Ken Gordon was simply a conduit for that idea from Mr Lee Chin.” The allegations have since been denied by Lee Chin and Gordon, and dismissed as “ole talk” by Prime Minister Patrick Manning.  Lee Chin has called on Yetming to apologise but Yetming has refused to do so.