The National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC) will celebrate its 10th Anniversary during Productivity Awareness Week from October 9th to 13th 2023. The Theme for this year’s observance is “Journey to Excellence: Leveraging Opportunities for Collective Advancement.”
“Productivity Awareness Week is a signature activity of the NCPC. This activity is held annually to highlight and promote issues of productivity and competitiveness affecting Saint Lucia.”
Director of the NCPC, Lisa Florent-Montoute said the theme for this year’s observance is reflective of the collaborative work of the NCPC to promote public/private sector dialogue. She highlighted some of the activities for Productivity Awareness Week 2023.
“We have several activities planned. We have a kwéyòl-themed launch since it is the month of October. We will be highlighting some of our signature projects such as our (ProTool) which is a Productivity Measurement Tool and we will also be featuring the Collateral Registry, which is a project that is currently being undertaken and it will be soon launched and we’re excited about this. We will be having a team building and staff recognition activity where we will be recognizing some of the past councils and some of the staff who have contributed towards our 10-year journey.”
The week will feature what promises to be an enthralling Spelling Bee Competition among Form 3 students of various secondary schools on the island.
“Of course, we are quite excited, the Ministry of Education, to be partnering with the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council.
Jennifer Raphael is the Ag. Curriculum Officer for English and a member of the planning committee she said the content area of focus is economics, accounts, and principles of business.
“Literacy transcends the curriculum and of course, as educators, we say content area literacy. Of course, we are quite happy because we want to give our form 3 students that awareness, not just the spelling but also the vocabulary is important in your day-to-day transactions, in interacting as a business student. To be productive and competitive, of course, there are certain key concepts that we want our students to know and so this affords us a beautiful opportunity for our teenagers to have fun and also to learn at the same time.”
Entrepreneurs and business-minded individuals are accommodated during the week, via a college-style business financing expo. Economist with the Department of Economic Development, Stanza Deligny, explains.
“Well, it’s called the Zafé D’ Exposition and we would just love to see persons turning out especially the youth to gain more information on financing. So we will have information on grant and loan financing. We’ve invited a number of agencies, we’re working across the board because we wanted to showcase administrative, we wanted to showcase those providing loan and grant financing as well as products who have benefited from loan and grant financing.”
A panel discussion on the loss of productivity on the road communications network will air on Wednesday, October 11th on NTN. The public is encouraged to follow the activities for Productivity Awareness Week on NTN and the NCPC’s Facebook and YouTube pages.