58th Workshop Meeting of NPOs Heads in Seoul, Republic of Korea, October 24-26, 2017.

26-Oct-2017

The WSM (Workshop Meeting) is the annual strategic planning meeting where APO member countries deliberate on the biennial program plan and review initiatives to ensure that they respond effectively to the needs of their economies. A current key APO focus area is building the capacity of member countries for strategic foresight planning, enabling them to anticipate changes in the dynamic global environment.

CEO of National Productivity Organization (NPO-Pakistan), Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Khattak represented Pakistan at the inaugural session of the 58th Workshop Meeting of Heads of National Productivity Organizations taking place in Seoul, Korea. In this meeting he highlighted challenges shaping the Pakistani economy and spoke about a cohesive role to cope these challenges. He emphasized the develop world to extend support to emerging economies for enhancing productivity embedded in human and capital deepening. He proposed APO to respond to the effects of technological changes on labor market by focusing on digital skills/knowledge, development of technology/platforms and future readiness.

APO Secretary-General Santhi Kanoktanaporn, ROK Deputy Minister for Industrial Policy, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy Dr. Gunsu Park, and Korean Productivity Center Chairman and CEO Dr. Soon Jick Hong were the notable participants at the inaugural session. Mr. Santhi said that APO would be driving more pioneering, upstream research on productivity measurement across the key areas of the public sector, higher education, knowledge, and cities. The APO will also work with NPOs to develop new projects for emerging trends such as the Internet of Things and smart initiatives for industry, agriculture, and services, he added.

Highlighting the need for APO members to acquire foresight capabilities, Dr. Santhi pointed out that the disappearance of old jobs and the creation of new ones had been a constant since the birth of the modern economy, and the Fourth Industrial Revolution would be no exception.

While speaking to the delegation CEO-NPO Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Khattak stressed that member countries should collaborate more by increasing capacity development programs to fully capitalize on NPOs’ productivity enhancement initiatives and also should increase linkage with other international Productivity & Quality organizations.

NPO Pakistan is supporting public and private sector by promoting innovation and efficiency sessions, building high skilled human capacity through skills development programs, suggesting energy efficient measures/technology, promoting research and development activities and encouraging exports by meeting demands of competition, technology and higher labor productivity.

The emphasis of this 19 APO members countries session will be to acknowledge the need for more focused, goal-oriented collaboration between the APO and NPOs to facilitate sustainable economic development across the Asia-Pacific. 

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