KARACHI: Federal Minister for Production and Industries Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani on Monday said the country was continuously in the grip of low productivity trap, adding that the government had devised a new plan under which many corrective steps would be taken within the next few weeks. We lag behind in productivity and quality of our products and services as compared to all emerging economies, the minister said while speaking at the 5th Productivity Conference on Development of Demonstration Companies on Six Sigma and Launching of Productivity Association of Pakistan -Sindh Chapter, here at the Federation House. The event was arranged by National Productivity Organization (NPO) in collaboration with Asian Productivity Organization (APO) Japan, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA)and The Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI). Chief Executive Officer NPO Khawaja Muhammad Yousuf, President FPCCI Sultan Ahmed Chawla, Vice Presidents FPCCI Mumtaz Ali Shaikh, Zakria Usman and Mansha Churra were also present. The Production Minister said even many Southeast Asian countries including India, who were far behind, had since overtaken us in all the three major sectors of the economy i.e. agriculture, industry and services. The survival of the economy would be at stake if we do not rise up to the occasion and adopt a proactive approach for enhancement of our productivity and improvement of quality of products — commodities and services. Innovative ideas are badly needed to match the fast moving world in the technological field, he asserted. Bijarani said the most disconcerting feature of our economic landscape was the neglect of human capital and poor social indicators. We have suffered both in upgrading our skills and imparting basic functional education to our labour force, he said. He informed that the Ministry of Industries and Production had given National Productivity Organization (NPO) the task to promote productivity and quality consciousness among the public and private sector organizations. The NPO was also working as a liaison office of Asian Productivity Organization (APO), Tokyo, Japan. He praised the APO for greater proactive collaboration in promoting Six Sigma, energy efficiency, benchmarking, quality and statistical tools in the Pakistani industrial sector. He said his ministry had directed the newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of NPO Khawaja Muhammad Yousuf to expand NPO s operations to Sindh, the Punjab, Balochistan and the NWFP.


Courtesy : The News