(Barbados Nation) The Caribbean’s preoccupation with “leisure, pleasure and nice time” is hampering its productivity and progression, says Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dr Ralph Gonsalves.
Addressing the Caribbean Export Development Agency’s Exporters’ Colloquium at Hilton Barbados on Wednesday, he said people in the region were limiting themselves by not working hard enough and smart enough.
He noted that problems of labour and management productivity existed across a range of sectors, including agriculture, manufacturing and tourism.
“The truth is that too few people in our Caribbean today have to carry too many and I’m not talking here about those who are seeking jobs and can’t get jobs. I’m talking about people who are working. And we have to get it in our heads that a progressive society is a society which has hard, smart and productive work at its core but that’s not what we have”, he lamented.