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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=Subheadline></SPAN></TD></TR><TR><TD>GARFIELD MYERS, Editor-at-Large South/Central Bureau
Friday, September 08, 2006
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=365 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Chairman of AIC and NCB Michael Lee-Chin (left) looks on while Northern Caribbean University (NCU) President Dr Herbert Thompson and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller applaud at the announcement that Lee-Chin will be funding a $155-million nursing school at the university. </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Arguing that it was social investment intended to help Mandeville realise its potential as a "great university town", chairman and CEO of AIC (Canada) Michael Lee-Chin yesterday announced a $155-million project for the building and equipping of a nursing school on the campus of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU).<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Hyacinth Chen School of Nursing - named in honour of Lee-Chin's mother, Hyacinth Chen - will cost $90 million and will be built on the eastern side of the NCU campus.
Work is expected to start in about three months on the 21,000 square-foot building and should last three months.<P class=StoryText align=justify>NCU officials said yesterday that once the work is completed, Lee Chin, who spent much of his early life in Mandeville, will commit another $65 million to equipping the complex, which will house 800 students. NCU already has a significant trainee nursing programme with about 400 students, half of whom are trained in Kingston.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Watched by a large gathering led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and members of his family including mother, father and brothers, Lee-Chin said his "gift" was motivated by a desire to "lead by example" in helping Jamaica achieve growth, development and prosperity and "its rightful place in the global society ."<P class=StoryText align=justify>He was also driven by a desire to pay back. He would not forget, he said, that when he was "down and out" as a university student in Canada, Jamaica "came to my rescue".<P class=StoryText align=justify>Using the example of his native Port Antonio, Lee- Chin said Jamaica had failed badly despite numerous natural advantages including geography and climate. Port Antonio, he noted, was the cradle of Jamaica's tourist industry - boasting in 1902, the Titchfield Hotel with 400 rooms. Yet today, there were fewer than 140 hotel rooms in the northeastern coastal town.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Lee-Chin, whose AIC group controls US$10 billion in assets and has majority ownership of Jamaica's largest bank, National Commercial Bank (NCB), claimed that to "embark on building a better Jamaica we have to embark on building town by town".<P class=StoryText align=justify>Residents of Mandeville, he suggested, should think about their "vision" for the town.<P class=StoryText align=justify>His own "vision", strengthened by the example and growth of the Seventh day Adventist-run NCU, was for a strong university base. Mandeville, he believed, had all the ingredients, including a "peaceful" environment for the growth and development of academia.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Why can't we build a Princeton here, why can't we build a Cambridge here, why can't we build an Oxford.?" he asked to loud applause.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Earlier, Simpson Miller, in pointing to the urgent need for more nurses, thanked Lee-Chin and the NCU for their "partnership".<P class=StoryText align=justify>And in the context of complaints about the loss of skilled Jamaicans, not least nurses, the prime minister said the "time come when we mu
Friday, September 08, 2006
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=5 width=365 align=center border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>
</TD></TR><TR><TD><SPAN class=Description>Chairman of AIC and NCB Michael Lee-Chin (left) looks on while Northern Caribbean University (NCU) President Dr Herbert Thompson and Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller applaud at the announcement that Lee-Chin will be funding a $155-million nursing school at the university. </SPAN></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><P class=StoryText align=justify>MANDEVILLE, Manchester - Arguing that it was social investment intended to help Mandeville realise its potential as a "great university town", chairman and CEO of AIC (Canada) Michael Lee-Chin yesterday announced a $155-million project for the building and equipping of a nursing school on the campus of the Northern Caribbean University (NCU).<P class=StoryText align=justify>The Hyacinth Chen School of Nursing - named in honour of Lee-Chin's mother, Hyacinth Chen - will cost $90 million and will be built on the eastern side of the NCU campus. Work is expected to start in about three months on the 21,000 square-foot building and should last three months.<P class=StoryText align=justify>NCU officials said yesterday that once the work is completed, Lee Chin, who spent much of his early life in Mandeville, will commit another $65 million to equipping the complex, which will house 800 students. NCU already has a significant trainee nursing programme with about 400 students, half of whom are trained in Kingston.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Watched by a large gathering led by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and members of his family including mother, father and brothers, Lee-Chin said his "gift" was motivated by a desire to "lead by example" in helping Jamaica achieve growth, development and prosperity and "its rightful place in the global society ."<P class=StoryText align=justify>He was also driven by a desire to pay back. He would not forget, he said, that when he was "down and out" as a university student in Canada, Jamaica "came to my rescue".<P class=StoryText align=justify>Using the example of his native Port Antonio, Lee- Chin said Jamaica had failed badly despite numerous natural advantages including geography and climate. Port Antonio, he noted, was the cradle of Jamaica's tourist industry - boasting in 1902, the Titchfield Hotel with 400 rooms. Yet today, there were fewer than 140 hotel rooms in the northeastern coastal town.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Lee-Chin, whose AIC group controls US$10 billion in assets and has majority ownership of Jamaica's largest bank, National Commercial Bank (NCB), claimed that to "embark on building a better Jamaica we have to embark on building town by town".<P class=StoryText align=justify>Residents of Mandeville, he suggested, should think about their "vision" for the town.<P class=StoryText align=justify>His own "vision", strengthened by the example and growth of the Seventh day Adventist-run NCU, was for a strong university base. Mandeville, he believed, had all the ingredients, including a "peaceful" environment for the growth and development of academia.<P class=StoryText align=justify>"Why can't we build a Princeton here, why can't we build a Cambridge here, why can't we build an Oxford.?" he asked to loud applause.<P class=StoryText align=justify>Earlier, Simpson Miller, in pointing to the urgent need for more nurses, thanked Lee-Chin and the NCU for their "partnership".<P class=StoryText align=justify>And in the context of complaints about the loss of skilled Jamaicans, not least nurses, the prime minister said the "time come when we mu