Agriculture, education revolution essential for national success - Olver
Guyana must revolutionise its agricultural industry and education system if it is to compete in the emerging global knowledge economy. That was the message from UNDP Resident Representative, Richard Olver, opening the Human Resources Practitioners Association of Guyana's (HRPAG) Conference 2000 at the Ocean View Convention Centre, Liliendaal, yesterday. Citing a recent UN survey examining the characteristics of successful countries, Olver said that the two components of success were education and agricultural reform. He urged the representatives of Guyana's human resources industry to take their place in the knowledge economy, to provide a workplace which encouraged growth and free thinking and escape the traditional "hired hands" attitude to workers. He lamented the absence of the requisite skills in Guyana, blaming the lack of personal enterprise on an inadequate education and the poor use of human resources in the work place. Identifying this poor use of resources as an unwillingness to spread responsibility to the lower strata of the workforce, he noted that the direct effects were, overworked and under-performing managers, a lack of innovation, and poor growth. This is symptomatic throughout Guyanese society, he stated, from the workshop through to government. Human resources are not being used to their potential, he continued, because they are not being treated as a resource. "People are resources, not minerals to be mined or exploited." "There is a new bargain," he said, where "enterprise affords the opportunity to learn to one's full potential in the job and beyond the job." He pointed out that it is not just the "developed world" that can adapt to the knowledge economy and specified East Asia, Barbados, India and Sao Paulo in Brazil as areas that have adapted and become world leaders. The greatest resource is the capacity for people to learn, Olver concluded, therefore it is possible for any country to succeed with good management, effective use of resources and an agreement on goals. The two-day conference will examine how to use human resources effectively in the uncertain socio-economic and political climate in the Caribbean. The forum will also feature addresses from Dr. Harold Lutchman, Advisor to the Guyana Trades Union Congress and former Vice Chancellor of the University of Guyana, and Dr. Christopher Imoisili, Senior Specialist in Entrepreneurship and Management Development at the ILO. Human Resources Manager at Omai Gold Mines Limited and President of the HRPAG, Norman McLean, began proceedings supporting Olver's view that "human resources are our greatest asset" and concurred that its effective use requires management decisions to be "reinforced by knowledge and understanding." Praising the "unsung association" for its progress to date, he hoped that the conference would galvanise and extend membership and "launch the Association into the consciousness of the public at large." (Matt Falloon)
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