Σύντομες Ειδήσεις

The Government of Cyprus attaches great importance in increasing the productivity levels in Cyprus as a primary factor towards enhancing the sustainable competitiveness of its economy.  Towards this purpose and following a suggestion made by the Minister of Labour and Social Insurance, the Council of Ministers decided in May 2005 to re-establish the Productivity Council, a high echelon tripartite body, with the remit to implement a Strategic Productivity Policy based on actions, activities and research that will lead towards the improvement of productivity in Cyprus.

Cyprus has a long-standing tradition of involving key stakeholders in the formulation process of National Strategies.  Therefore the Social Partners and other prominent stakeholders were actively involved in the formulation of the National Productivity Strategy, which was subsequently approved by the Productivity Council in May 2007.  The Strategy has a 7-year horizon, covering the programming period 2007-2013, in order to coincide with the time span of other important national planning documents.  It is based on an extensive structured review of the current situation in Cyprus and is in line with the National Reform Programme, the Strategic Development Plan 2007-2013, the Cyprus National Strategic Reference Framework for Cohesion Policy 2007-2013 (NSRF) and the Regional Innovation Strategy for Cyprus (RISC).

The overarching strategic objective of the National Productivity Strategy is the acceleration of the productivity growth rate so that total labour productivity reaches the EU-27 average by 2013, while at the same time maintaining and improving employment rates and adhering to the principles of equality, protection of environment and social inclusion.

The Strategy will be implemented through undertaking specific actions within the framework of the priorities and measures envisaged in the National Productivity Programme.  These actions, which aim at enhancing the productivity of both the private and the public sectors, have been structured under four priority pillars:  Replacement of low productivity jobs with high productivity jobs and at the same time increasing the utilisation of human resources and incorporating applied research and development in the production processes; Abolition of unproductive practices and methods in the Civil Service; Development of a productivity culture; Promotion of targeted research activities in productivity related issues.

 The National Productivity Strategy copiously refers to human capital development, which will be pursued through the following four important interventions:

• Transition from low productivity jobs to high productivity jobs: This measure includes the design and implementation of holistic interventions that may include diagnostic studies, state aid schemes for consultancy services, restructuring of enterprises, introduction of new technology and technical know-how, introduction of new methods of work organisation and training.
• Improvement of quality of work: This measure proposes to carry out research studies to examine the relationship between the quality of work and productivity as well as the dissemination of periodic publication of a “quality of work” indicator based on various criteria for “good work” provided by relevant studies. Additionally, based on the findings of research studies, it is envisaged that further actions will be undertaken to promote and enhance the quality of work.
• Utilisation of Human Resources: The findings of the study entitled “The effect of education/training and technology on the productivity of Cyprus´ economy” that has recently been conducted by the Economics Research Centre of the University of Cyprus at the behest of the Cyprus Productivity Centre, show a weak link between education and training on the one hand and productivity on the other. Therefore, it is proposed that a further research study should be conducted to determine the reasons for the non-satisfactory utilisation of human resources in Cyprus thus leading to the design and implementation of specific interventions
• Supporting the integration of research and development in enterprises aiming to improve both the production processes and the products and services: This measure includes consultancy services, incentives for developing teams in enterprises for improving processes and products, a scheme for acknowledging and rewarding good practices, dissemination of good practices and a scheme linking researchers and enterprises.

The mechanisms for the implementation of the National Productivity Strategy include the development of actions plans, which will analyse in detail the specific actions and measures to be promoted.  The Cyprus Productivity Centre will be the Managing Agency for the implementation of the action plans.  The organisations and agencies responsible for the implementation of the various actions and measures will submit interim, annual and final follow-up reports.  Based on these reports an annual overall follow-up report will be submitted to the Productivity Council where any necessary adjustments to the National Productivity Programme will be discussed and decided.