IMPORTANŢA SĂNĂTĂŢII ŞI EDUCAŢIEI PRIMARE ÎN CREŞTEREA COMPETITIVITĂŢII ECONOMICE
IMPORTANCE OF HEALTH AND BASIC EDUCATION IN INCREASING ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS

Summary/Abstract: A healthy workforce is vital to a country’s competitiveness and productivity. Workers who are ill cannot function to their potential, and will be less productive. Poor health leads to significant costs to business, as sick workers are often absent or operate at lower levels of efficiency. Fortunately, several important risk factors are controllable, often simply by modifying health habits. In fact, behavior changes at any age can return rewards in health and productivity. In other cases, the early detection of illness can simplify treatment and increase chances for a complete recovery. And that’s good news for businesses because they rely on people. Many small employers think that only large corporations can afford to sponsor worksite health promotion activities or participate in community-wide health promotion campaigns that benefit both their employees (past, present, and future) and their corporate image. But health promotion doesn’t need to cost much. Investment in the provision of health services is thus critical for clear economic, as well as moral, considerations. On the other hand, basic education increases the efficiency of each individual worker. Moreover, a workforce that has received little formal education can carry out only basic manual work and finds it much more difficult to adapt to more advanced production processes and techniques. Lack of basic education can therefore become a constraint on business development, with firms finding it difficult to move up the value chain by producing more sophisticated or value-intensive products.

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