The Tribune

By NATARIO McKENZIE

Tribune Business Reporter

nmckenzie@tibunemedia.net

A well-known Bahamian financial services executive has called for “collective will” to ensure productivity levels improve, arguing: “We can no longer accept the status quo.”

Larry Gibson, vice-president of Colonial Pension Services (Bahamas), who was a part of a panel discussion on the ‘Survival of the Bahamian economy’, hosted by the CFA Society in collaboration with the College of the Bahamas, stressed that citizens needed to demand that they receive what they are paying for.

Mr Gibson said: “If we start demanding more, that will go a long way. We tend to be accepting. Just because it’s a government agency we expect bad service, but we have to change the culture.

“We cannot be accepting of the status quo. We need to ask ourselves some hard questions as a society. We all know that the level of productivity, whether in the hotel industry, government or education, is not where it ought to be. We all know that. We accept that and try to find ways to work around it.”

Mr Gibson added: “We need to step up our game, and we are not doing that as a nation. We don’t like to rock the boat.

“We need to start demanding that we get the requisite level of service that we are paying for. There needs to be a collective will to ensure that productivity in this country starts to go the right way.”

Dr Iyandra Bryan, managing director of Amicorp Bahamas Management, the Bahamas needs a complete “cultural shift”.

“We have to change this ease of doing business ranking. We need a complete cultural shift,” she said. “We need to look at these various sectors that have an impact on financial services and see how we can radically shift the mentally and the mindset of people so that they realise that they are not just there to get a pay cheque, but they are doing something that is impacting the sector as a whole.

“We are not just talking about lower productivity in the private sector; we’re talking about all sectors. Across all sectors we are not as productive as we should be and I think it’s a cultural thing that we need to shift.”

Dr Nicola Virgill-Rolle, the Government’s lead on the National Development Plan: Vision 2040, said that improving the ‘ease of doing business’ could be a “quick win” for the Bahamas.

“I see improving the business environment as one of those quick wins for the country,” she said.

“It involves people who are on large organisations thinking about what they are doing a bit differently, and the importance of their roles to the economy. It involves a cultural change, some incentives, rewards and punishments.”