Innovative economy to essential for sustainable productivity in Pakistan: CEO

ISLAMABAD, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Productivity Organization (NPO) Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry on Wednesday said use of modern innovative techniques and technology in different sectors of the country’s economy was essential for
promotion of sustainable productivity.

The CEO said there was a need for awareness on productivity in Pakistan at all levels, including industry, agriculture, academia and the general public.

He made these remarks while addressing a seminar titled ‘National Productivity Movement’ here at National Press Club (NPC) Islamabad.

The National Productivity Organization (NPO) has decided to launch the ‘National Productivity Movement’ for a cross-sector awareness drive nationwide.

He said realizing sustainable productivity as an important factor for achieving competitiveness and target GDP growth, the Ministry has emphasized to launch a comprehensive productivity movement as successfully done in the other developed countries like Singapore, South Korea, Japan and Malaysia.

The nations that have worked in the recent past have improved their productivity standards at different sectors, including Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore, he said adding, today have economies that are competitive with the outside world and have the status of emerging economies at the regional and global levels.

The mainstay of the economic development of these countries has been on their productive workforce, adding these countries are exporting the skills of their productive workforce.

He informed that the main stages and objectives of the productivity movement
were to create awareness, productivity design and development stage, implementation level and finally continuous improvement.

At present, various sectors of the national economy were suffering from lack of competitiveness and inefficiency due to productivity issues, where “We need to improve in inputs.”

He said due to productivity issues, Pakistan has lost competitiveness in the global market and now the government was working on a medium and long term plan for its improvement.

He said that through this awareness campaign NPO would engage national and international productivity experts, who might help and guide in design and development of activities to be launched during awareness campaigns.

Through this drive, at national level the NPO would also spread productivity promotional material, booklets, documentaries, productivity news and journals.

He said, “We would also go to educational institutions for conducting productivity workshops and capitation such as essays and posters.

He said the productivity awareness campaign would also start through print, electronic and social media and also celebrating productivity day and week.

Alamgir Chaudhry said competitiveness in public and private sectors must be promoted to increase industrial productivity for achieving economic growth and prosperity.

He said, “We need to be efficient in our productivity tools including output increase, human resources, technology and process of different industrial value chains for achieving industrial growth to enhance our trade volume with the world”.

“The local industrial sector is lacking the efficiency in its value chain through technology, productivity, innovation, managerial productivity and human labor productivity which are the major tools to enhance the productivity and efficiency in the local industrial sector,” he said.

While sharing the cooperation of NPO with different industries, he said his organization was fully committed to cooperate with the major sectors of economy including agriculture, textile, leather, sports to enhance the efficiency of the value chains of these sectors for achieving productivity at optimum level.

He said the main focus of the organization was to take initiatives and implement programs that inculcate productivity and quality culture in Pakistan to compete with other regional and global competitors.

The CEO said NPO has also launched a “National Master Plan” on the pattern of Singapore, which achieved the optimum level of productivity in the last decade and proved the most efficient public and private sector.

Through this plan, NPO has decided to start a cross-sector survey for achieving the productivity and efficiency in the industries and institutions, he added.

He said NPO has hired the foreign experts to find out major causes of inefficiency and non-productivity in local public and private sectors.

After the study of key indicators of the cross sectors survey, the NPO would be able to adopt the measure to take the productivity to the optimum level.

“We are fully coordinated with all major chambers of the country under the Umbrella of Federation Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) including the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce, Lahore Chamber of Commerce, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and all small chambers of different regions”, he added.

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