V ice-Chancellor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies, Sir Alister McIntyre, sees doom for the Jamaican economy, unless sustained growth in what he calls “total-factor productivity” can be achieved.

Contrary to popular belief, said the academician, the low productivity of any one of the factors of production was not the real problem in Jamaica.

“There is a tendency in popular discussion to. bemoan the limited working capability of labour as the main problem in Jamaica. Low productivity is an extremely important aspect of the matter, but it is not the whole story.

“The low productivity of other factors of production – capital and land – is a significant ingredient of the overall problem of low productivity,” McIntyre said.

“Several recent reports on Jamaica and other Caribbean countries have drawn attention to low and declining capital/output ratios, and in particular, to the declining efficiency of public investment. One should also recognise the low productivity of land, illustrated by low crop yields with respect to a variety of crops.

“The truth of the matter is that the productivity problem is endemic to the economy as a whole and requires urgent attention by all sectors of the society. To put the matter in a broader context, without sustained growth in total-factor productivity, it will not be possible to reactivate sustained growth in the Jamaican economy,” he said.

In addition to making the best use of all three factors of production, McIntyre suggested that arming ourselves with the right tools with which to exploit available markets was the way forward.

He said that with the formalisation of the Caribbean Single Market and with the numerous other trade agreements to which Jamaica is party, the country was not “short of market access” but lacks only “the capability to exploit them”.

The vice-chancellor’s comments last week at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, were set against the backdrop of the launch of A to Z of Industrial Relations in the Caribbean Workplace, a revised and expanded work of the A-Z of Industrial Relations Practices at the Workplace, which first appeared some 20 years ago.

The new work, co-authored by original writer, Dr George J Phillip, executive director of the Sandals/ATL Group, and labour market specialist and lecturer at the UWI, Benthan H Hussey, speaks to the conditions of employment at the workplace and extends its scope to the Caribbean region.

It is designed for employers and employees alike and “offers strategies for understanding and handling absenteeism, strikes, fighting on the job, productivity and wage compensation”.

– thompsonk@jamaicaobserver.com