Middle Managers Urged to Play Their Part in Country’s Development

Minister of Agriculture, Labour and Social Security, Hon. Derrick Kellier, has called on middle managers to play their part in Jamaica’s economic and social transformation, as they are powerful players in the overall destiny of the country.

“Like the Government, you have a moral duty to face accountability. You must demonstrate that you have a vested interest in both the qualitative and quantitative improvement and development of this country,” the Minister said.

Mr. Kellier was speaking at the opening of a two-day Make Your Mark Middle Managers’ Conference, at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston, on April 28.

He also urged the middle managers to take the message of transformation to their respective organisations.

“You need to encourage your enterprises, institutions and organizations to invest in innovation, research and development in the new areas of industry and technology; invest in new product development as well as in the export market, public and private partnerships with local and foreign investors in the following areas: energy, infrastructure, business process outsourcing, agriculture, mining and logistics,” the Minister told them.

Meanwhile, Mr. Kellier highlighted the positive strides that have been made by the Government in transforming the economy, noting that the economy has grown 1.5 per cent, thereby improving confidence to achieve further levels of growth and stability.

“Jamaica’s business and consumer confidence is at an all time high with 65 per cent of firms reporting that it is a good time to expand their productive capacity to take advantage of future economic opportunities. Investment plans have surged 10 per cent higher than the prior peak of 55 per cent set in the second quarter of 2014,” he informed.

The Minister also pointed out that inflation is beginning to trend downward from 9.3 per cent in January of last year to 5.3 per cent in January this year.

Another positive sign that the Minister highlighted was the reduction in the food import bill by $5 billion last year, which reflected a 40.5 per cent decrease over the corresponding period in 2013.

“The Government is striving for growth and has achieved a near balance budget for the current fiscal year. The country has achieved a debt to GDP ratio that is trending downward,” he said.

For her part, Managing Director of Make Your Mark Consultants, Jacqueline Coke-Lloyd, said the annual conference “will continue to provide new learning opportunities for participants who will return to their organizations and be agents for positive change, energized, reflective and armed with good practices.”

Mrs. Coke-Lloyd also stressed that in order for Jamaica to achieve economic growth, middle managers must help by changing how they think and reject complacency and mediocrity.

This year’s conference focused on several areas, including leadership, human resource development, customer service, project management, finance and audit, productivity improvement and business development.