By Wilfred Golden
Minister of labour Agnes Nyalonje has urged Malawians to always put much of their focus on producing products that are of high quality so as to ensure that the nation is achieving excellence.
According to Nyalonje, as the country is going through difficult times, citizens must realize that there is a solution which can take the nation far and that is being productive weather as an individual, at household level or a nation as a whole.
She was speaking this at Mount Soche hotel in Blantyre when she presided over the 4th edition of Employers Consultative Association of Malawi (ECAM) gala dinner awards.
“Now as the country this is the best time to focus on productivity this will help us weather as an individual or at household level even as a country.
“Indeed there is no any time to focus on productivity than when a country is facing turbulent times, there are several aspects to enhance productivity but the cheapest is the development of skilled and resilient labour force that can adapt to change, act innovatively by identifying new products and new processes that can help films to find new markets as well as be competitive.
“It is incurbetable to all of us including government to ensure that as a country we have ways of making sure that the industry is thriving through high productivity which is another way of high job creation.
“Ladies and gentleman no matter what mitigation policies are put in place to cushion Malawians from hardships that are facing currently, this will be in vein unless we are much productive and we are competitive with our neighbours, if well managed the labour sector is a source of our advantage weather you talk of enterprise level or industry level,” Nyalonje highlighted.
On her part, ECAM president, Annie Chavula noticed that this year has been very tough for employers with unstable business and economic environment, as employers witnessed a number of negative impacts including decreased productivity, financial stress and loss of customer confidence due to challenges in production and supply of products.
“Employer of the year awards, is a value-added service to our members that only brings a great opportunity for member organizations to have an external assessment.
“Through this, member organizations are able to identify areas of improvement and develop strategies for change to adapt to the economic environment,” she explained.
During the awards, Illovo sugar Malawi emerged as the largest employer whilst the employer of the year award went to Japan Tobacco International (JTI).
This year, the event was being held under the theme “Enhancing productivity in turbulent economic times”.
