Laziness crippling region’s export potential, says PM Gonsalves

THE region cannot get away from the fact that if it does not work hard, smart and productively, it will not reap the benefits of export-led economic growth.

This assertion was made by Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, while presenting the key note address on day one of the Caribbean Exporters’ Colloquium at the Hilton Barbados last week Wednesday afternoon.

Speaking to a cross-section of officials, policymakers and business leaders, Prime Minister Gonsalves criticised the work ethics of a too large a percentage of the region’s labour force, remarking that a scourge of laziness was affecting not only the agricultural sector, but also manufacturing and services.

In the face of the limited hours we actually work, how can we expect to “produce anything...for export which is competitive, or even for domestic conception?” he questioned, added that the negative trend spanned across both labour and management.

“The truth is that 2 few people in our Caribbean today have to carry too many – and I am not talking about [carrying the weight of the unemployed]…but about people who are working! We have to get into our heads that a progressive society is a society which has hard, smart and productive work at its core!” opined Gonsalves, easily commanding the attention of his audience.

“[Sadly] there is a focus on leisure, pleasure and ‘nice-time’ by too many people [and] a society…preoccupied with [these things] will go the way of [early century] Rome,” he charged.

Crime one of our biggest emerging limitations

The keynote speaker also highlight crime and another growing limitation which grave economic implications. He referred to the extremely low detection rate of serious crimes in Trinidad and Tobago as a “joke” and referenced recent reports of criminal offences on tourists holidaying in Barbados in order to show the impact of crime on “bread and butter” industries.

Size was the third major limitation which Gonsalves addressed and noted that we needed to face in order to build a suitable business developmental model for the region. He warned against believing such a model was a “quick fix”, noting that changed needed to occur from the domestic household level, working its way through the wider society. (RA)