By Andrew Green, Staff ReporterAN international training centre is to be built in Jamaica to serve the Michael Lee Chin controlled AIC Group, which includes National Commercial Bank (NCB) and the Berkshire Group, which is the AIC distribution arm.
Aubyn Hill, NCB managing director, made the announcement at a press conference at the NCB corporate headquarters in Kingston on Wednesday.
"We have a commitment to training," Mr. Hill said. "It is something that we take seriously."
AIC chairman Michael Lee Chin visited the headquarters of Infosys technologies in India and was impressed by their training facility, Mr. Hill said. Infosys is the company which designed a new US$30 million banking system for NCB.
Based on his experience at the Infosys headquarters, Mr. Lee Chin has decided to acquire property of between 50 acres and 150 acres to build a training centre in Jamaica.
"We intend to bring a partner such as Infosys to be in there with us," he said. This is part of "our commitment to this country."
The facility should be operational in "a relatively short period of time," he said. It will be located outside of Kingston with one potential site already under consideration.
To be "a world class centre," it will serve the 2,600 staff of NCB as well as 700 at AIC, and 800 employees of Berkshire.
