To ease financial woes, a Quezon City councilor appealed to local entrepreneurs to make cost cutting a more viable option than laying-off employees to avert possible bankruptcy.

Quezon City Majority Floor Leader Ariel Inton said that firing employees should be the last resort saying that cutting costs on travels, fuel consumption, purchase of office supplies and the like should first be considered to minimize expenses.

The unemployment woes will further worsen if companies opt to fire their workers instead tapering off their needless expenditures as millions of local residents are in deep financial straits.

In a meeting with local businessmen and prospective investors in the city, Inton stressed that “cutting on business costs is a win-win solution both on the part of the management and labor force.’’

He stressed that putting people out of jobs would only disturb industrial peace; increase the incidence of street protests, strikes, rallies, pickets, putting a dramatic dent on Quezon City’s economic status.

For the city to reach further financial gains and economic stability, Inton said that there should be the right chemistry between capital and labor where the investment flow will have a positive impact on Quezon City residents.

“The welfare of the workers and employees should be balanced with management interest to restore trust between the equally powerful forces,’’ Inton added.

Inton said that local workers and the business industry might want to resort to more feasible alternatives to regain financial stability since current employment options do not bring desirable returns.

He urged that agriculture and agrarian reform officials to adapt the Cambodian model of farming leases in a bid to totally avert the rice shortage the country had faced in the past.

The system allows the government to lease suitable idle properties of private individuals at reasonable rates for the purpose of growing rice to minimize the incidents of its shortage during distressed periods.

“In Cambodia the government is serious in its effort to invite Asian and Middle East countries to infuse capital investment in return for land concessions,’’ Inton told reporters.

During his two-day trip in Cambodia earlier this year, Inton observed that its government is transferring foreign investment in construction to agriculture in the wake of the country’s economic slowdown with an average of nine percent growth in the last ten years.