National Productivity Organisation: Ministry launches project to improve productivity of various sectors

ISLAMABAD: The Ministry of Industries and Production has launched a development project to improve the productivity of the industrial, manufacturing, services and educational sectors through the National Productivity Organisation (NPO) in the country.

While addressing a press conference here on Tuesday, Chief Executive Officer of NPO Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry said that this productivity movement was first-ever developmental initiative funded by the public sector development programme to improve competitiveness through sustainable national productivity.

He said that NPO would train the stakeholders to increase productivity and make them productivity specialists in relevant sectors. He said NPO had been accredited the status of certification body by Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), Japan, first time for a period of four years.

Chaudhry said that 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 labour productivity, which are the major tools to enhance the productivity and efficiency in the local industrial sector,” he said.

Potentially improvement in all the segments of Pakistan’s economy is needed and hopefully the NPO-trained professionals after getting training from NPO in various fields such as quality, competitiveness and sustainable social economic development, they will excel in relevant fields.

He said the government was working hard to make Pakistan economically productive and globally competitive by promoting export-driven economy through imparting training and producing productivity specialists in the country. The NPO CEO said that more than 10,000 individuals including students of schools and technical institutes had so far been educated to give awareness about the concept of productivity through various sessions all over Pakistan.

He revealed that NPO so far has trained over 600 targeted industrial workers through renowned productivity experts about productivity tools and techniques. He said that two productivity booklets for technical schools, industry and public had been introduced. He said that two curriculums (productivity modules) had also been developed and shared with the NCC and the NAVTTC for inclusion in their curricula, training, and certification programmes.

At present, various sectors of the national economy are suffering from a lack of competitiveness and inefficiency due to productivity issues, where “We need to improve inputs.” He said that due to productivity issues, Pakistan had lost competitiveness in the global market and now the government was working on a medium- and long-term plan to improve it.

He said that through this initiative, the NPO has engaged national and international productivity experts, who are helping and guiding in design and development of activities with identifying products and services to be developed during the product design and development stage.

Through this drive at the national level, the NPO would also spread productivity promotional material, booklets, documentaries, productivity news and journals. He said, “We are also reaching to educational institutions for conducting productivity workshops. The productivity campaign will also start through print, electronic and social media and also celebrating productivity day and week.”

In order to promote a culture of productivity, productivity weeks were marked in major cities including Islamabad, Lahore, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Faisalabad, and Multan by conducting walks coupled with holding awareness sessions addressed by renowned national productivity experts, the CEO said.

He said that different productivity competitions including painting posters, conducting debates and article writing were arranged at NED University, UET Lahore, IBA Sukkur, University of Swabi, and MNS University of Agriculture, Multan to create awareness about productivity.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023