Annual Report 2009 - Asian Productivity Organization

in-country projects were held in IR Iran, India, and
Pakistan last year, and similar courses were completed
in Fiji, Indonesia, and Cambodia this year. Three
more courses were scheduled toward the end of
2009 for Thailand, Lao PDR, and Bangladesh, the
Secretary-General noted, hence training more than
200 productivity practitioners, of whom 60% were
from NPOs, by the end of the year. The Secretariat
officially launched the two-tiered scheme in mid-2008
with three multicountry projects, after which a total
of nine national-level follow-up projects had been
organized for 464 participants, or an average of about
51 individuals per participating country.
The Secretary-General then elaborated on APO
e-learning activities. In 2008, five e-learning courses
were organized, each consisting of three phases, with
each phase involving five countries in the same or
neighboring time zones. These courses enabled the
Secretariat to train 1,500 participants each year. APO
e-learning courses were unique, he noted, because
they were followed by traditional, face-to-face training
courses featuring advanced versions of the topics.
An example of projects that generate visible, measurable
impacts was the Eco-products International Fairs
conducted over the last five years. The Secretary-
General also pointed out that the APO Productivity
Databook series represented an important breakthrough
in terms of producing credible, comparable
productivity data on member countries and assured
the meeting that the APO would continue to make
improvements in its methodology and coverage. The
recently released Asian Growth Map on the APO
Web site giving updated quarterly growth statistics on
member countries’ GDP was also mentioned. Under
the plan to strengthen the institutional capacities
of member countries to compute their total factor
productivity, the Secretariat was presently assisting
Mongolia, Indonesia, and Fiji, Secretary-General
Takenaka noted.
The Secretary-General then touched upon APO
activities in agriculture, particularly the increasing
emphasis on food safety-related projects. The number
of participants had also increased dramatically. He
expressed hope that the number of participants
attending the 50 such projects from 2004 would reach
more than 1,600 by the end of 2009.
Another recent initiative of the Secretariat was
evaluating the impact of APO projects. The Secretary-
General reported that an evaluation team had been
sent to Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India in
June and July this year, and local NPOs were actively
involved in the evaluation effort. The team conducted
additional interviews by visiting resource persons in
Singapore and the Philippines. He stated that the
team’s tentative findings showed that projects generally
benefited the participants, their departments, and
their organizations.
As part of the foundation activities for the centers of
excellence (COE) initiative with SPRING Singapore
as the pilot COE on Business Excellence, the
Secretary-General said that Singapore was compiling a
database of experts on business excellence and quality
awards, and the Secretariat was conducting a survey
on the impact of quality awards on business.
All these initiatives had originated from ideas
expressed at WSMs and GBMs, emphasized the
Secretary-General, and he believed that WSMs as well
as GBMs had been a source of good ideas and inspiration
for all in the APO, particularly the Secretariat.
In concluding his statement, Secretary-General
Takenaka reminded the meeting that the APO would
celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2011, which meant
that delegates must think ahead and explore new
actions to make the organization more effective and
relevant in the next half-century.
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APO ANNUAL REPORT 2009 13
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