KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness says the government is grateful for the interest being shown in Jamaica’s economic development by English business magnate Sir Richard Branson.

“The Government of Jamaica is grateful, very grateful to you,” Holness told Sir Richard, the multi-billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, at this morning’s opening of the Branson Entrepreneurial Centre, at the Sovereign Commercial Centre in Kingston.“It is great that you have made yourself available so people can have access to you. But, more than that, to invest your own funds in developing an eco-system to support the kind of mentorship that is necessary for the next billionaire, whom I am not just hoping, but I have a certain confidence will be a Jamaican,” the prime minister said.The Branson Centre, originally started in Montego Bay, is helping to elevate entrepreneurship on the national agenda, and develop more globally competitive entrepreneurs in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean.Sir Richard, an English business magnate, investor and philanthropist, is the founder of the Virgin Group, which controls over 30 companies, including Virgin Atlantic and over £5 billion in investments.He is in Jamaica to commemorate the opening of the new centre, and to engage local donors and stakeholders in supporting the centre’s accelerator programme.Balford Henry