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| Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss speaking to the audience while the BEC’s Executive Director, Tony Walcott and President, Ian Gooding-Edghil look on. (A. Gaskin/BGIS) |
Government is leaving no stone unturned in its quest to put this economy back on a path of prosperity.
Minister of Industry, International Business, Commerce and Small Business Development, Donville Inniss, has given the assurance that his administration is working around the clock to "wrestle our economic and financial challenges to the ground, and to build a more resilient and diversified economy where all citizens can share in its success."
He made these comments as he examined the topic: Facing Reality, Barbados’ Future at the Barbados Employers’ Confederation’s 53rd Annual General Meeting luncheon today at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
In the presence of members of the public and private sectors, the Minister said that "the reality is that all of the major sectors (tourism, manufacturing, international business and agriculture) which are our main engines of economic growth, have not performed as had been anticipated."
Emphasising that over the past five decades Barbados had transformed its economy from being primarily mono-crop to a service economy, especially in the areas of tourism and international financial services, the Industry Minister pointed out that the "success of any service economy hinges principally upon the human capital available therein and how said human capital is deployed and managed."
The Minister also indicated out that there were several areas of concern which he had with regards to management, deployment and delivery of our human resource in Barbados.?? He noted that Barbadians had to realise that this country’s greatest asset was its people and, therefore, it was incumbent on citizens to realise that they were the greatest asset to the development of the economy and society.
However, he stressed: "Like a proverbial ostrich, we cannot and we must not bury our heads in the sand and pretend that all is well on our human resource landscape.?? If we are to truly build a resilient and sustainable economy then we must act with a sense of urgency to confront those human resource management issues that plague our society."??