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| Sunday, 3 July 2005 |
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Productivity development is vital - Minister Athauda by Don Asoka Wijewardena Most people have a misconception that they can improve productivity only by working hard and sweating more. This is no dispute over the fact that hard work with improve productivity, but very often people work hard, because they are not organised and have not undergone relevant training. Apparently, most offices and factories are not laid out properly causing unnecessary movement, or systems that are unnecessarily cumbersome requiring hard work but with very little useful result. It is extremely important to use productivity improvement techniques such as work study, ergonomics and 5S which can make the work more efficient, expand with less effort and still produce more, said Labour Relations and Foreign Employment Minister Athauda Seneviratne at a workshop "on the role of media on productivity development" held on July 1, at Galle Face Hotel, Colombo. Addressing a large number of journalists Minister Seneviratne emphasised that the productivity secretariat which came under the purview of his Ministry had embarked on forming productivity units in all public sector organisations to educate the workforce so that inefficiency, lack of motivation, industrial conflicts between employer and employees could be eliminated making it environment conducive to achieve sound productivity. Minister Seneviratne urged both electronic and print media journalists to enlighten people on the importance of productivity development which Sri Lanka lacks in comparison to other countries. Labour Relations and Foreign Employment Ministry Secretary Mahinda Madhewa said responsible journalism is essential to the health of a democratic society and its aim, as mass communicator and educator was to keep people well informed on all matters which would affect their interests and on which they would make decisions. Secretary Madhewa also said that productivity was a concept that would affect the lives of everyone. He noted that some nations had become rich not merely because they had resources, but because of their consistent attention to productivity and added that it was higher productivity coupled with higher investments that could increase the wealth of a nation and thereby made available better health and other social conditions and provide a higher standard of living. National Productivity Secretariat Director Upali Marasinghe said that higher productivity would make goods and services cheaper and more competitive and added that this would mean a higher demand for those goods and services as industries and services would expand creating more jobs. |
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