ISLAMABAD, Mar 13 (APP):Minister for Industries and Production Syed Murtaza Mahmud on Monday appreciated the role of the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) in the development of the Asia-Pacific region saying that it is time to revitalize the commitments and to strive to achieve APO’s vision of inclusive, innovation-led productivity growth in the Asia-Pacific.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the five-day “International Training Course On Productivity Gainsharing in Agribusiness Enterprises”, the minister welcomed the international delegates and conveyed his gratitude to APO and National Productivity Organization (NPO) for addressing this important topic. He further added that working in tandem with APO, Pakistan will be able to find solutions to long-standing issues of the agriculture.
This training course will provide knowledge on the application of gainsharing tools and share best practices to make agribusiness enterprises more productive and profitable.
Gainsharing has the potential to contribute to agricultural productivity as farmers are empowered, actors in supply chains are motivated to create increased feeling of ownership, and companies receive greater profits due to higher productivity and enhanced efficiency throughout supply chains. Successful gainsharing plans result in quality and productivity improvements of employees.
The Minister said that “representing the Ministry of Industries & Production, we own and owe a mission to achieve efficient, sustainable and inclusive industrial development to play the role of facilitator in industrial development and entrepreneurship through policy intervention, setting up industrial parks and export processing zones for investors, skill development of human resource for industrial sector and socio-economic development of country with particular focus on SME development and promotion of traditional crafts of Pakistan”.
He said agriculture is considered the backbone of Pakistan’s economy. Sustainable growth of the agriculture sector stands vital for food security and rural development in Pakistan. It is a major contributor to the employment and foreign exchange earnings. Growth in this sector has multiple linkages with the overall economy. It contributes 22.7 percent to the GDP and provides employment to around 37.4 percent of the labour force.
He further added that the challenge is to better integrate small scale farmers into markets so that they can make the agricultural sector stronger. Experience shows that when a country’s agricultural sector is not competitive, there is greater reliance on imports and less agriculture-driven poverty reduction in rural areas.
“We also look forward to enhance productivity of our agriculture sector, based on mutual learning and showing the rest of the world, how, APO member countries can work together for innovation and development; and also be mentors for other countries of the world.”
Head, APO Secretariat, Tadahisa Manabe expressed his sincere gratitude to the Government of Pakistan for their sincere efforts to continue productivity movement and in developing first ever National Productivity Master Plan for Pakistan.
He also appreciated the efforts of APO Country Director for his strong leadership and support; and NPO head for his keen interest. He also mentioned the APO & NPO team for their efforts for productivity enhancement in the region.
CEO NPO Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry thanked the Federal Minister for Industries and Production and Tadahisa Manabe and Secretary MoIP for their presence and time. He welcomed all the participants, resource persons.
He said that it is worth indicating that two other APO member countries i.e. Bangladesh and Vietnam, in the recent past, got their National Productivity Master Plan developed, as desired by the top leadership of their countries, with assistance of the APO, Japan.