Above: Port of Spain (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad and Tobago is “way behind” in productivity, according to Labour Minister Errol McLeod.

The Minister was speaking at the FairShare Exposition at the Centre of Excellence in Macoya on Friday.

“We are way behind in so far as productivity is concerned and if our productivity levels are low then our costs are high,” he said. “We must try to get the value out of every dollar spent, whether it is in wages, whether it is in procurement of goods and services and if we are not competitive in that regard then we could find ourselves at the end of the line with hands out stretched waiting for a fish.”

McLeod, who also holds the portfolio of Small and Micro Enterprise Development, said the country was also behind in innovation, ranking 81st out of 142 countries in a recent global report.

Productivity is particularly crucial in a country where, he said, more than 90 percent of businesses fell under the category of small and micro-enterprises.

“Low productivity levels are high cost production,” he said.