BUSINESS MONDAY: Focus on disciplined approach

A leading business executive is suggesting a need for more discipline on the part of economic policymakers if economies in this region are to achieve sustainable growth.

Gervase Warner, CEO of Massy Holdings Limited which is headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago, and has operations in Barbados, insisted this as the way forward for the region amidst the poor economic performances.

“We have got to find ways to grow our countries ourselves and that requires more discipline than we have been accustomed to operating under,” said Mr. Warner.

“It is productivity that drives growth, it is productivity that allows countries to be competitive, to use the emerging digital platform to have access to the global space and to the services that can be offered from any way,” he told his Barbadian and regional audiences.

Arguing that there are no easy way out, the CEO said that the region cannot have access to those things as long as we have economies that are shrinking, and with unequal opportunities.

He spoke against the backdrop of what has been a continuing push and debate to get the private more involved in economic growth, although there is evidence to show that firms are doing so.

Gervase also spoke against the background of the double digit economic decline which several countries in the Caribbean experienced last year on account of COVID and with the likelihood that this would continue again in 2021.

Warner admitted that countries have to bring people out of poverty by giving them the education and access to technology and other platforms that allow them to participate.

“To me that is the key focus, because if we keep looking for someone to give us investments from somewhere and continue to be affected by the several crises, we have to be more disciplined in our approach to doing things,” the Massy Holdings Limited CEO declared.

“This is the kind of hard work that pays its own rewards,” he added.