Asian Productivity Organisation

In 2005 a partnership was initiated between the APO and PAPA to establish a platform for the sharing of resources, ideas, experiences and lessons in productivity as well as exploring the opportunities of building the productive capacity in the African continent through National Productivity Organisations (NPOs).

The Japanese Prime Minister at the time, Junichiro Koizumi, in his address to the Asia-Africa Summit held in Indonesia, mentioned that Japan would provide assistance to transfer the Asian experience of productivity movement to Africa. Keeping his statement in view, the APO-PAPA Round Table Conference for the Promotion of the Productivity Movement in Africa was held in Sandton, South Africa from 28 to 31 August 2006, with the financial support from the Government of Japan. The countries that attended the conference included Botswana, Mauritius, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia from Africa and Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam from APO member countries.

At the conference resource persons from APO member countries shared their Asian experiences of the productivity movement with African partners, as well as African participants presenting the status of productivity movement in their respective countries and development of master plans to strengthen the productivity movement in respective participating countries.

The nature of the APO partnership involves conducting a series of training programmes for productivity practitioners in PAPA member countries as well as non-member countries.

The common programmes are the Basic Course for Productivity Practitioners (BCPP) and the Advanced Course for Productivity Practitioners (ACPP). The BCPP, which runs over four weeks, develops the competencies of participants in the promotion and application of basic productivity and quality (P&Q) techniques.

The ACPP, which runs over three weeks, provides participants with a wider perspective and deepens their know-how and technical competency by exposing them to relatively advanced tools and techniques for carrying out productivity improvement at organisation and industry levels. The APO seconds productivity experts from its member countries to facilitate the courses.

Visit the Asian Productivity Organisation website