June 01, 2022: The National Productivity Organization (NPO) launched mass awareness campaigns involving general people and targeted groups aimed at identifying and analyzing productivity gaps to achieve competitiveness in national economy.
The session was organized by the NPO in collaboration with Private Education Institutes Regulatory Authority (PEIRA) at Headstart School here on Wednesday.
President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Shakeel Muneer inaugurated the celebration of “Productivity Day” here followed by a productivity walk and an awareness talk.
Speaking on the occasion, Shakeel Muneer said that achieving competitiveness in the national economy was possible only through productivity and this required a paradigm shift.
The public and private sectors in Pakistan, including the industrial sector, faced many challenges in achieving productivity, which we could tackle to build a strong economy, he said.
He appreciated the initiatives taken by the NPO and contribution of PEIRA and Headstart School in the best interest of the country.
He also added that these types of activities would play a pivotal role to spread the awareness towards the concept of productivity which would subsequently enhance the productivity culture in the country resulting in a globally competitive Pakistan.
While addressing the participants Chief Executive Officer NPO, Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry said that in this modern era of globalization, many developed countries were moving towards Knowledge Based Economies (KBE) taking competitive edge by rapidly improving their competitiveness and innovation capabilities through enabling environment for technological investment, human resource development, and business regulations covering good processes, procedures and systems.
He said that Pakistan was also recognized globally as a high potential economy but unfortunately in past many years, the country had not been able to utilize its potential and gain competitive advantage in global and regional market.
The major reasons behind country’s slow growth rates of output were lack of innovation, low level of investment, technological inefficiencies and limited R&D resulting in lower productivity and non-competitiveness.
These competitive weaknesses highlighted in Global Competitiveness Index 2019-World Economic Forum as Pakistan ranks 110 out of 141 countries due to low labor market efficiency (120), technology adoption (131), and higher education & training (125).
Government of Pakistan is very much committed towards improving the economic landscape of Pakistan through focusing sustainable development approaches of increasing business competitiveness, investment facilitation, value addition, export promotion and import substitution, he added.
To augment this commitment of Government of Pakistan, the role of key stakeholders (Industry, Academia and Employers Federation) was very important.
Productivity and quality were the only keys to achieve the business excellence and competitiveness and it was the opportunity for us that we could engage our young blood to play their role in increasing productivity in their respective areas as emphasized by Ms. Zia Batool, Chairperson-PEIRA.
CEO Headstart School Ms. Naznin Murtaza also addressed the participants and recognized the efforts of NPO and PEIRA for the mission of productivity awareness campaign and ensured the maximum support to the cause of productivity.
One of the NPO’s key developmental initiatives is “Improving Competitiveness through Sustainable National Productivity (SNP).
The encompassing objective of the project is to launch massive awareness programs to help in enhancing the productivity of different segments of economy.
NPO has nominated as the member of Planning Commission’s Working Group on “Reforming Policy Incentives for the Industrial Sectors” for preparation of “Three Year Rolling Growth Strategy (3YRGS) Agenda for Economic Diversification, Transformation and jobs-led Growth”.
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