Government should consider amending or even scrapping work permit time limits as they are potentially driving skilled workers out of Bermuda and into the arms of its competitors, Chamber of Commerce president PhilBarnett said yesterday. Speaking about increasing the value of the Island's "human capital" at the Hamilton Rotary Club meeting held at the Royal Hamilton Amateur Dinghy Club in Paget yesterday, Mr. Barnett claimed that other jurisdictions were "gunning for Bermuda", and that the Island needs to retain its skilled ex-patriate workforce in order to maintain its position as one of the leading economies in the world.Meanwhile, according to a global survey released yesterday by Bermuda-based firm Accenture, the inability to attract and retain the best talent was seen as the biggest threat to business success by senior executives at some of the world's largest companies, with 67 percent each citing it as one of their top five concerns. Among the issues Mr. Barnett addressed during the meeting were protectionism, entitlement and meritocratic ideals.He said Bermuda must realise, and fast, that the opportunity to continue to differentiate itself from the rest of the world is by increasing the value of its human capital."In Bermuda however, we have a situation where we have a terms limits policy in place that to all intents and purposes, and despite the good intentions, is now potentially driving knowledge workers out of our country, and very possibly directly into the open arms of our competitors," he said. "This will absolutely be to the detriment of Bermuda as a whole."He admitted that, while some might believe that "overtly protectionist policies", such as term limits, are important to ensure that Bermudians are not disenfranchised in their own country, business knows it is completely unsustainable to even think about setting up shop in Bermuda and not involving the citizen population in its operations. But there is a point where "fair and just policies" to advance the current and future prospects of Bermudians may be quickly passed."Instead protectionist policies become too burdensome and difficult, and not only become barriers to entry of new business, but may even drive existing business away," he said."The hard and fast facts are that knowledge workers exist in all levels of an organisation, and often at times can make up departmental teams that are unrivalled in their particular field in regards to dynamism and collective endeavour."Policies that slowly chip away at these 'dream teams', through either term limits reached, or individuals in the team making personal decisions to leave Bermuda due to a looming six-year deadline, can be devastating."Mr. Barnett made an analogy with immigration over-protectionism being like countries imposing tariffs on less expensive but identical overseas manufactured products to ensure that localised manufacturers can get the price necessary to sustain their profitability, and thus keep their workers employed."In Bermuda, the simple fact is, Bermudians, as a whole, will collectively and economically 'do better', or achieve a comparative advantage when free trade of human capital is encouraged (albeit, with the careful and managed measurement by the Department of Immigration)," he said."Make no mistake about it, other jurisdictions are, to put it bluntly, gunning for us."We, as a country, must be very clear that our comparative advantage, with the addition of overseas knowledge workers, is far more beneficial to us as a whole than the absolute disadvantage of us trying to go it alone."And he called on Government to change the current term limits for the benefit of all Bermudians."Therefore, fellow Bermudians should know that if Government has the foresight and fortitude to amend, and perhaps even strike the current term limit legislation, there is a real and significant benefit to all Bermudians."Mr. Barnett said that avoiding protectionist policies and counteracting the culture of entitlement is a crucial way to move towards a more meritocratic workplace."Proponents of meritocracy argue that a meritocratic system is more just and more productive than other systems, and that it allows for an end to distinctions based on such arbitrary things as sex, race or social connections," he said. "And we all know that we could do with a lot less focus on race."However, in order to get to the point that we are working towards a more cohesive and collectively successful island of Bermudians, we have to realise that sometimes the best man or woman for a job may not necessarily be Bermudian."He concluded that human capital is the biggest advantage Bermuda has and should therefore use it effectively."So fellow Bermudians, let's choose to not dumb ourselves down, as, in the global world of competitiveness, a misplaced sense of entitlement will only take us further and further out of the game," he said."The only way Bermuda can continue to enjoy its chart-topping quality of life and financial stability is in leveraging the combined strength of our integrated pool of knowledgeable workers, where meritocratic ideals and best practices can help us all to great global success."