Caribbean360: Barbadians get low marks for productivity

Barbadians get low marks for productivity
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Chris Hoyos on 17/03/2011 09:23:00
 
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Thursday March 17, 2011 – Finance and Economic Affairs
Chris Sinckler is less than pleased with the productivity of the Barbadian
workforce and has warned that the country could miss out on lucrative business
connections that are needed to enhance the island's reputation.
He said while the country has invested billions of dollars over the years in
education, health care and technological upgrades, it still seems to be dogged
by inability to increase factor productivity across most sectors.
“This is quite troubling, since in order for us to sustain expansion in our
economy, in ways that would meet the heavy social, economic, and political
demands, we have to find ways to translate these heavy investments into greater
levels of output,” the Finance Minister said.
He said foreign investors were looking more closely at the levels of
productivity of the labour markets, technology platforms and the style and pace
of the administrative and legal systems and the country’s general business
culture when determining whether to relocate their operations.
And Sinckler said the standards in the high-pace environment of the corporate
decision-making process are moving so quickly that “Barbados stands to lose on
impacting and securing top investments if we cannot raise the quality and speed
of productive output”.
The Finance Minister also bemoaned the slow pace of doing business.
"Several of us, in both the private and the public sectors, have lamented the
general lethargy of our business culture and have all commented and have
committed to seeing improvements across sectors. I am afraid, however, that this
might not be enough. Surely we can do better at all levels, whether it is
through employing better training for our workforces, retaining and more
pointedly using higher grade technologies and applying the appropriate factors
in the right places,” he said.
Sinckler criticised businesses for not monitoring programmes that were
formulated to improve efficiency.
"The reality is that we have failed to implement what we have designed and we
have refused to monitor that which we have implemented in empirical ways that
would allow us to make the adjustment to improve productivity. This failure is
shared equally in the public and private sectors and it must be addressed," he
said.
Bearing all those concerns and shortcomings in mind, the Finance Minister said
that steps are being taken by government to turn around the situation in the
public sector.
He pointed to initiatives to reform the Customs and Excise and Value Added Tax
(VAT) Departments, and upgrades to the Barbados Statistical Service, Barbados
Port Inc. and the Town Planning Department.
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