CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT Dennis Joslin, who was ushered into Jamaica two months ago to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding debts formerly held by the Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC), says he will be opening up another business in Jamaica within another two months.
Mr. Joslin declined to say the type of business in which he will be engaged, but said he will be doing so with a Jamaican partner.
He made the disclosure while addressing a forum hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AMCHAM) at the Terra Nova Hotel in St. Andrew last week.
Along with a Jamaican partner, he will be "opening up another business within the next 60 days here in Kingston," Mr. Joslin said, adding that "I have faith" in the country.
Mr. Joslin is the co-founder of Dennis Joslin Company, a United States firm based in Dyersburg, Tennessee which specialises in purchasing non-performing loans for restructuring or resolution. His company is collecting debts on behalf of the United States investment firm, Beal Bank, which acquired FINSAC's bad debt portfolio for an initial payment of US$23 million earlier this year.
Due the nature of the debts, his company will have a presence in Jamaica for at least another 20 years, Mr. Joslin said.
LONG-TERM INVESTMENT
Asked to say how he could guarantee such a long-term investment in Jamaica against the background that there could be massive devaluation of the local currency as occurred in the past, Mr. Joslin said if that happened again, "it won't be pleasant for any of us."
One protection which will develop over the next few years, he said, is that "the world will be dollarised or Euro-dollarised. There will be no more, in my opinion, small currencies" and therefore Jamaica will be dollarised in some form.
Referring to arguments that dollarisation would not work in Jamaica because it had not worked in Argentina, Mr. Joslin said Argentina was a poor reference point for what could happen in Jamaica.
"Argentina didn't dollarise their money, they pegged their money to the (US) dollar and continued to run the presses," he said. "You cannot peg your money to the US dollar or the Euro and continue to print money. Simple economics. ... It won't work."
