"It is a serious move when you change a central bank governor. With the challenges that we are facing, and the serious negotiations and discussions that have to take place, it is a significant change. But we are heartened to know that the hands that will be on the wheel - Dr Wesley Hughes and Brian Wynter - are people we have the highest regard for.

"We like stability, and from what we have heard, Dr Hughes, who is somebody of eminent experience and competence, will be carrying the negotiations, and Brian Wynter will begin in a matter of weeks. We are glad that the Government has moved quickly to calm any concerns that would have arisen from such a serious move.

"It is an issue of stability and policy continuity. We don't anticipate any major shift so far, so we don't think it will have a significant effect. It is nothing that we are overly concerned about, but we are watching the situation carefully."

--------------------

Be mindful of productive sector

Omar Azan - President of the Manufacturers' Association of Jamaica

"I don't have any comment on either the resignation or firing of the Bank of Jamaica governor. What I will have a comment on is the new governor taking office. I only hope that he takes into consideration the productive sector of this country - the issue of the cost of money and flow of funds to the productive sector so we can get the creation of jobs going, so that Government can collect revenue and that we can compete on the export market so that we can earn foreign exchange.

"I am asking the new governor of the Bank of Jamaica, Dr Wynter, when he takes office, he has a full understanding of the productive sector, the tourism sector and the agriculture sector, because those are the areas that are going to drive development. He will need to find a way to provide the environment, in terms of the flows, access and cost of funding. I don't think the last governor succeeded in that regard because of his high interest-rate policy."

The Government must prevail

Danny Roberts - Vice-president, Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions

"We cannot speculate above the governor's own words that the separation has been by mutual consent. Once this is so, the tenets of good industrial relations practices for us would have been settled.

"The other fundamental issue seems to have been the differences in opinion between the Bank of Jamaica and the Ministry of Finance on monetary matters. Every government is elected on the basis of its platform of economic and social-development strategy, and where it believes there is an incoherence with its policy operationalisation and the views of its key technocrats - like the governor of the central bank - the Government must prevail. In the final analysis, it is they that the electorates will have to judge, not the governor, on the basis of their economic platform.

"The crucial issue going forward for Jamaica is the deepening of the social dialogue to ensure the development of a broad-based macroeconomic strategy, with fiscal and monetary policy coherence, and the maintenance of the independence and credibility of the central bank. This has to be the focus beyond the discussions on the IMF agreement.