Minister of Finance Chris Sinckler is concerned about the declining level of productivity in both the public and private sector.
His comments came during the opening of Digicel’s newest mega Digicentre at Mall Internationale, Haggatt Hall, St Michael last night.
Sinckler said in order to sustain expansion in the economy in ways that would allow Barbados to meet the heavy social, political and economic demands, Barbados would have to finds ways to “translate heavy investments” into greater levels of output.
“. . . . We have invested billions of dollars over the years in education, healthcare and technological upgrades, [but] we still seemed to be dogged by an inability to increase our productivity across most sectors. This is quite troubling,” said the finance minister.
He noted that as standards in “the high-pace environments” were shifting upwards at a “nano-second”, countries such as Barbados stood to lose if they could not raise the “quality and speed” of productivity output.
“Both private and public sector have lamented the general lethargy of our business culture and have all . . . . committed in deed, to see improvements across sectors. I am afraid, however, that this might not be enough. Surely, we can do better at all levels,” he said.
