The Jamaican Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller has always indicated , that she employ minister to do their job and she will allow them to their job and allow them to speak on their portfolio ministry. This would have been all well if things were headed in the right direction (unless PNP thinks they are doing well), but it’s not .
So while the PM, is satisfied to allow her minister to do their job and speak, she will not allow a foreign trip to pass, without being head of any such delegations heading to any country. We learnt yesterday that the Prime Minister was heading to China for a 5 day visit and today we see the Sunday Gleaner, reporting on the purpose of the trip.
This is what the Sunday Gleaner is reporting today ( 8/18/2013)
With hopes of wooing Chinese investment to the country, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller has left for China where she will be meeting with high-ranking public- and private-sector interests during a five-day official visit.
What caught my attention also was the following:
She has been accompanied by A.J. Nicholson, minister of foreign affairs and foreign trade, and Robert Pickersgill, minister of water, land, environment and climate change. Dr Carlton Davis, special envoy and Simpson Miller’s chief adviser, has also made the trip.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130818/lead/lead5.html
Now the Prime Minister has decided here to do the job of the Minister of Investment, Industry and Commerce, who amazingly is absent from this trip, which according to the Gleaner was so seek “investment” in Jamaica. How could the Prime Minister be making such an important trip and the minister with portfolio responsible for the area in which the Prime Minister is seeking to represent Jamaica is missing?
There must be a reasonable and logic reason for his absence and we will await word as to why this is the case.
The real reason for the Prime Minister visit based on her previous trend of visit is “Jamaica and China will also reaffirm bilateral relations, including celebrating the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between both countries, established in November 1972.”
In other-words the Prime Minister is off to another celebration in keeping with the trend she has established thus far and while she is off celebrating , she will be hoping to gain some investment.
Why is Robert Pickersgill, a minister who has never performed any role except for chairmanship of the party, is also on this trip?
What an amazing country we have called Jamaica, where we can send delegation after delegation on overseas trips and we get absolutely no report on the outcomes of those trips and neither can we see the tangible benefits of previous trips, while we continue go on even more trips, where is the accountability ?
Why am I even complaining, Jamaicans in general seems happy with what is going on !
Courtesy: Jamaica Observer
Filed under: Commerce, Investment |
Warren's Blog 
The pnp is an idealistic party, Jay, PJ Patterson enjoyed many of those useless trips, the pnp’s purpose is not to create wealth but to create a society in which we are equally poor.
The media is treating the PM with kid gloves. No other PM in Jamaica’s history has been offered such liberties as PSM. She doesn’t give interviews, rarely speaks on hard issues and is always jetting off to some foreign country.
Our media lack backbone when it comes to deal with this PM. There was a meeting held some months ago with Jamaica House and the press to iron out protocol on dealing with the PM and to date I haven’t heard what came out of that meeting.
But anyway that meeting should not have taken place, the press should not have to beg to speak with the PM. She begged and pleaded for the nation to vote for her and her party. Now that she is in power, she doesn’t want to talk to the nation.
I am amazed that it has taken 2 days for JLP to ask the question I asked two days ago. I am also amazed that the Private sector groups or public commentators to ask the question on why Anthony Hylton was missing from the China visit.
JLP Questions Investment Minister’s Absence From China Trip
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/latest/article.php?id=47399