By Leonardo Blair, Staff ReporterKARL SAMUDA, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) Spokesman on Trade and Industry, on Wednesday slammed claims that a World Bank report had ranked Jamaica among the top 10 best places to do business this year.
A rather forthright Mr. Samuda pointed out in his contribution to the Sectoral Debate in the House of Representatives that the report was not sanctioned by the World Bank. He also produced a "more reliable" report from the World Economic Forum which ranked Jamaica's business usage sub-index at 76th out of 102 countries as of 2002.
In producing the actual document of 'Doing Business in 2004', which is said to bear the World Bank report, Mr. Samuda read in full, a clearly-defined World Bank disclaimer of the report amid much laughter from his colleagues.
"What we have instead, Mr. Speaker, is what can only be described as an unfortunate attempt to link a report and have it peddled in this House as a great sign that Jamaica, open for business, is within the top 10 most acceptable sites to do business. Nothing could be further from the truth," said Mr. Samuda.
Reading the disclaimer from the report titled 'The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development The World Bank', Mr. Samuda said: "The World Bank cannot guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this report."
He continued that: "The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed here are those of the authors and do not reflect the view of the board of executive directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent."
"The country's profile last year was out of 80 countries studied. I respect the Prime Minister and I don't want to see him get into trouble when they give him information that is misleading. I don't want him to come here and be embarrassed because they are exposing him to embarrassment," Mr. Samuda said almost sarcastically.
"Now the latest report of the World Economic Forum, ranked out of 102 countries, Jamaica in terms of competitiveness is 67th. In terms of business ranking we were ranked 76th out of 102," Mr. Samuda noted.
