Edward Seaga has cautioned the Government to ensure that the country had enough investment opportunities to soak up what he predicted would be a surplus of money created by disinterest in treasury bills offering reduced interest rates.

“There will be a lot of money out there looking for investments,” Seaga, the opposition leader, told guests, including Prime Minister P J Patterson and his finance minister, Omar Davies, at the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ) Long Service Awards dinner at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston Friday night.

“The problem is that the range of investments is very narrow. What is going to happen when all this money rushes into the stock exchange,” he asked. “The bubble is going to blow. Be careful it doesn’t burst. You must ensure that there are other investable areas that will take off some of those funds as interest rates go down.”

But Davies assured Seaga that the mistakes the Government made in the past would not be repeated.

“In regard to the future of the bank, the questions posed by Mr Seaga are ones which clearly have to be examined,” Davies said in his address. “How do we identify non-viable projects to finance in the near term as interest rates come down as they must and as they will. And how do we ensure that the bank, even as it seeks to foster increased investment and economic growth, does not make the mistakes of the past in terms of becoming involved in indirect lending.

“Mr Seaga, let me assure you, that we have no intention of going that route. We have learnt certain lessons and we will not repeat those mistakes.”

Having shot up last year as the central bank moved to defend a sharply declining dollar, interest rates have, in recent months, trended downward, but not at a rate fast enough to allow the finance minister to reach deficit targets.

Prime Minister Patterson, in his address Friday, was optimistic that Highway 2000 would open up many feasible investments opportunities. He said that the highway was not intended to be solely a pathway for traffic “but indeed a road that leads to development”.

“We have many projects in the vicinity of that highway that will become feasible and attractive as a result of that development,” Patterson said. “And if anybody is in doubt as to where to put some of that money, just give Kingsley (Thomas) a call.”

Thomas is the executive chairman of the National Road Operating and Constructing Company (NROCC), the vehicle being used by the Jamaican Government to spearhead the development of the highway being built and operated by the French construction company, Bouygues.

Thomas is also the chief executive officer of the DBJ, which resulted from a merger between the Agricultural Credit Bank of Jamaica Limited and the National Development Bank of Jamaica in April 2000.

Patterson said that there had been very positive developments in Jamaica since the beginning of the year. He listed among them:

. the historic Memorandum of Understanding with trade unions;

. the tourism sector, which has had a promising winter season;

. robust investment inflows;

. increased earnings from the bauxite/alumina sector;

. the recently announced $41 billion expansion at Jamalco; and

. the newly signed agreement with the United States communication giant AT&T.

Patterson said that he was confident that the Development Bank of Jamaica, based on its fine record, would continue to spearhead the national effort to achieve innovation, expansion, modernisation, efficiency and growth in the local productive sectors in line with the Government’s overall priorities.