SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — National Commercial Bank Financial Group Chairman Michael Lee-Chin says Finance Minister Dr Nigel Clarke’s appointment as a deputy managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) augurs well for Jamaica and points to the importance of building institutions instead of personalities.

“People are saying well, there’s a hole left [in Government because of Clarke’s IMF appointment]. I think it was the French President General De Gaulle who said there are a lot of indispensable people in the grave. So it’s for us to build institutions so [that] it’s not just dependent on one person, and in Jamaica we have some strong institutions. We can be better and we will be better because we’re learning, but it’s overall net. It’s a good thing for Jamaica,” Lee-Chin said in interview with journalists in Westmoreland on Thursday.

Clarke is slated to step down from one of the most important roles in government to take up his IMF post on October 31, 2024 and, while Prime Minister Andrew Holness has stated that the Government has identified a successors and that there will be a smooth transition, there have been questions surrounding the length of time it is taking for the successor to be named.

Last week, Opposition Leader Mark Golding told supporters at a People’s National Party Westmoreland Eastern constituency meeting that the Holness Administration was unable to govern without Clarke.

However, in the interview on Thursday Lee-Chin said Clarke’s move to the IMF “showcases that we are a nation… that punches above our weight”.

“Dr Clarke is a very good representation of us in Jamaica, so it is overall a good thing,”argued Lee-Chin.

When asked who would be his preferred choice of a replacement for Clarke, Lee-Chin said he was unable to answer that question at this time.

Turning to the financial state of the country, Lee-Chin said, “We need growth. We need to get back to thinking about growth. Growth will come from creating an environment whereby it enables and facilitates growth.”

On Wednesday, the Planning Institute of Jamaica reported that the economy registered flat growth of 0.1 per cent during the April-June quarter. The agency’s Director General Dr Wayne Henry said this, along with the fallout from Hurricane Beryl, may not be enough to temper economic declines expected to come for the current July-September quarter.

Against that background, he said the forecast is for the economy to contract within the range of -0.1 per cent to -1.0 per cent for the July-September 2024 quarter.

Lee-Chin was in Westmoreland as part of NCB’s Customer Blitz series aimed at strengthening customer relations, including providing customers with an opportunity to directly interact with him and senior executives.