Today the Belize Chamber of Commerce hosted a workshop aimed to improve productivity in small and micro enterprises. The event was held so that stakeholders in the private sectors could learn and discuss methods for making the workplaces more productive. We spoke to the Chamber's Vice President of Commerce, Rufino Lin, and Vanessa Phala from the International Labor Organization about the event...
Rufino Lin, Vice President of Commerce - BCCI
"Productivity is all around us. Anybody who owns a vehicle will measure how many mile they get per gallon. That is a level of productivity. The engagement today is productivity in the workplace. How do we improve our outputs from the inputs that we put into any business enterprise? Today's workshop is to bring together a wide sector of employers and representatives of the labor union to be able to work together and engage in that public discussion of improving productivity in the workplace."
"I am sure that we will focus on the types of inputs that we have; we have in the generation of goods and services; we have inputs of labor; we have capital; we have also materials that we use to produce goods. So the discussion will be on how can we make more efficient use of those inputs to produce goods and services in the economy."
Reporter
"What are the challenges that Belize is facing in terms of productivity and efficiency?"
Vanessa Phala, Sr. Specialist, Employer Activities - ILO
"You know looking at some of the reports that have been done for Belize, including by organizations such as the IDB, a number of challenges are around the diversification of the economy. Obviously for many of the countries that are Caribbean and some islands that mainly tourism oriented and some that are agricultural oriented - the challenges is how do you begin to diversify your economy so that you are able to do other economic activities, so that if, for example, for countries that are relying on tourism and there happens to be a hurricane as seen in the past tropical storm as we've seen. What then happens? Because that means that it will affect the revenue for the government. Because that is the sector that you generate your income from. But if you have other economic activities that you could explore, then you are not that vulnerable to such environmental disasters."
Alex Courtenay, 7News
"What kind of strategies can we then employ to work to diversify these industries?"
Vanessa Phala, Sr. Specialist, Employer Activities - ILO
"Importantly, is to expand, in terms of your innovation in ICT sector. Obviously because of globalization and the expansion of the technology. You have to explore what could you do in order to take advantage of some of the advances in technology. Look at the business processing sector and you see what can be done. What else can we do? What kind of entrepreneur that you want to create for the country. What sort of business should they start exploring so that you are not just relying on one economic activity?"
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