NPA boss extols LIPA

The Managing Director of the National Port Authority, David F. William, has extolled the Liberia Institute of Public Administration or LIPA for boosting government’s human resource agenda.

Mr. William indicated that human capital investment had multiplier effects engendering long-term economic growth and increase in the standard of living. According to him, economic growth and development are dependent on the quality of a nation’s human resource, and as such, the sector has to be given the priority it deserves.

According to him, any country desirous of enhancing and accelerating its development process must take capacity-building seriously, as well as execute it in a sustained, deliberate and comprehensive way.

He said it was indisputable that the government of President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf recognizes the importance of higher education in national development, as reflected in the goals for Technical and professional education and enunciated in the dynamism of the global  economy.

“This is why LIPA has been effective in impacting knowledge and skills for many decades, and will continue to do so in the future as a way to developing a knowledge-based society’,’ he noted.
Mr. William’s statement was contained in his keynote address delivered Friday at the 2016 Second Circle Graduation of LIPA held at the University of Liberia on Capitol Hill.

William spoke on the theme: “Capacity-Building for Efficient Economic Management in Liberia.” The NPA boss said the pace at which a country generates and the processes which lead to sustainable economic growth and development, depend largely on the quantity, quality and diversity of its human resources, adding that the engine of growth of East Asian countries, for instance, has been powered by sustained and high levels of investment in human capital, which has resulted in highly skilled labor force and its impact has been positive on growth and
development.

He urged the graduates to provide and exhibit the leadership skills learned by applying them at their respective work places in a bid to achieve the desired outcomes. He further described human resource capacity-building as central to sustained economic growth, as it is the greatest asset any country can have. Hoe noted that Capacity-building enhances citizens’ participation to
their economy by Contributing to national development through high level manpower training, stressing that LIPA was not only contributing to an increase in real output, but accompanied by changes in the structure of the economy, including its social and political elements. LIPA was established in 1969 by an Act of the Legislature with the statutory mandate to provide capacity-building support for  sustained and quality service delivery through training, research, consultancy and information services to both public and private institutions.

A total of 327 students graduated from the institution 234 of whom were males and 93 females. Among the disciplines, they received diplomas in monitoring and evaluation, procurement, human resource management, as well as certificates in other courses.

By Bridgett Milton