The show
is on; the same people, the same faces that you usually come across in those
select private-public sector committees, the chosen all-knowing and lofty few
that have made it a habit to lord over the wayward Mauritians, have now
concocted a new version of the same old productivity issue. Another Productivity Consultant that will
spawn another of those high-flying terms like “Gamba Kaizen” or “Muda”. So what if it is the umpteenth catchy
expression from another umpteenth consultant on productivity and
competitiveness !!!
The show
goes on; du dejá vu; you recall the fanfare with which the NPCC was
launched. It was supposed to rally the
masses round the Productivity Challenge and to enlist their support to meet that
challenge head on . Now, almost a decade later, most of their Muda stuff have
been caught in the cobwebs of time, imposing relics sitting augustly on
bookshelves gathering dust while the masses tag along impervious of the
different productivity strategies that have been conceived for them by the
omniscient few. Like the consummate
illusionist, the latter knew all along that the masses do not need a national
shared vision, they have only to be aware that there is one and that they have
only to be shepherded to the promised land of “Ensam pou enn Meyer Kalite Lavi”- the Mauritius that the few
visionaries have visualised for the Mauritian flock. One of the themes of our long-term
strategy was “getting richer by doing it better”;” and now as the new NPCC unfolds , the same old
theme is being packaged in the more modern jargon of the New Economy, it rings
a somewhat familiar bell –“working smarter rather than harder” or “Make
Mauritius work together”. As for the
masses for the past decade they have been trying to decipher this new mantra
that is expected to metamorphose “Boxer” into smart Aleck or the
computer nerd. Mantra it is and Mantra it has remained while Boxer,
for the past decade, has been on the look out for the necessary tools to
perform the transmutation, the quantum jump to the knowledge economy. Ti
Pierre, Pandit and Rahim were all willing but the IVTB, the HRDC the Private
sector and the Government were found wanting. What about the erudite few, the
local conne-touts !!!
Ostriches they were, Ostriches they stayed.
We
should only expect that much from our local self-appointed gurus. They are more
at ease in their ivory towers prattling about new imported “productivity jargon”
and hopelessly out of tune with the realities of the masses. But they are good
at coining new maxims – Maryé Piké or Gemba Kaizen – the same old wine in a
very Mauritian bottle. These will not be of much help in our efforts to
leapfrog to a new frontier of production possibilities that will be possible
only through productivity enhancement.
We are aware that we have certainly lots of catching up to do in the
productivity race. Our past performance in boosting productivity has indeed
been relatively poor. For the past
decades(1983-2006), the contribution of labour to the 5.3% growth in GDP, was 22%
and that of capital, 64%. The residual 14%
represents the contribution of other factors such as training, management,
innovation, and technology also termed Total Factor Productivity (TFP). The contribution of TFP (14%) compares
unfavourably with that of the East Asian Economies, where TFP growth
contributes to over 30% of GDP.
Productivity enhancement is indeed a hard nut to
crack. It is a marathon race without a finish line. But steeled with the inner
conviction of the true obsessive, simple, innovative and inexpensive actions
with the worker on board and with a narrower and more realistic remit for the
NPCC anchored in the realities of the masses,
we can go a long way towards winning the race against time. But we will
have to frame our agenda to include the efforts to bring the weakest and the
most vulnerable from the margins of society to the centre stage and encourage
and facilitate our workers to be owners of their development, beneficiaries as
well as doers of development.” The whole productivity improvement campaign need
a new focus, it was a quest for a joint venture of all Mauritians to create a
new synergy, unleash new creative energies, tap those sensitivities that can
convey the message of the importance of productivity and develop the right
attitude