Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) in collaboration with National Productivity Organization (NPO) organized an awareness session for the business community on “Productivity & Quality”, which was a part of 1st Productivity Movement of Pakistan. The event was attended by a large number of stakeholders. A productivity walk was also organized on the occasion.  

In his welcome address, Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry appealed to the Prime Minister of Pakistan to lead the Productivity Movement in the country in order to make Pakistan a competitive market. He stressed that the business community should focus on productivity and quality to achieve better growth. He said that in this age of competitive business environment, it is very important for businesses to improve productivity of their operations and quality of their products if they have to capture better share in local and international markets. He said that the government should provide support to the private sector in such initiatives and introduce productivity-based incentives that would make the private sector more competitive. He appreciated the initiatives of NPO for promoting quality and productivity and added that these efforts will play a positive role in spreading better awareness towards these concepts. He stressed that the private sector should fully participate in the productivity movement of NPO to enhance productivity & quality in order to compete in the world market. 

Speaking at the occasion, Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry, CEO NPO said that Singapore’s labour productivity was USD 153,000 compared to Pakistan’s USD 15000, which showed that Pakistan was way behind in improving its competitiveness. He stressed that there is a need to inculcate the nation about the importance of productivity and quality to make Pakistan a more competitive market. He said that the major reasons behind Pakistan’s slow growth rates of output are lack of innovation, low level of investment, technological inefficiencies and limited R&D resulting in lower productivity and non-competitiveness. He said that the Government of Pakistan is very much committed towards improving the economic landscape of Pakistan through focusing on sustainable development approaches. This could be achieved by increasing business competitiveness, investment facilitation, value addition, export promotion and import substitution. He said that NPO is going to launch a structured Productivity Movement in Pakistan for positioning it as a competitive market through enhanced productivity.

Dr. Kamran Moosa, Chief Executive, Pakistan Institute of Quality Control (PIQC) gave a presentation to the audience on different dimensions of P&Q and gave an overview of various tools and techniques.

Ismat Gul Khattak, DG, PNAC highlighted the role of accreditations for businesses to remain relevant in the competitive global market. Jamshaid Akhter Sheikh, Senior Vice President and Muhammad Faheem Khan Vice President ICCI thanked NPO for arranging such a use session on quality and productivity and reiterated that ICCI would work closely with NPO to organize programs that would help improve the competitiveness of private sector.