Optimum productivity is crucial
He said one of South Africa's key priorities was to bolster and stimulate the sluggish economy to address the challenges of rising unemployment, poverty and inequality
SOUTH African companies should take advantage of Productivity SA’s Enterprise Support Programme (ESP) to elevate their productive capacity.
Labour Deputy Minister iNkosi Phathekile Holomisa said the programme is one of the interventions by the entity to help businesses achieve a productive high-income economy which is globally competitive, targeted at the productive sectors of the economy that has a potential for labour absorption.
He said one of South Africa’s key priorities was to bolster and stimulate the sluggish economy to address the challenges of rising unemployment, poverty and inequality.
‘As the country emerges from technical recession and navigates its journey towards radical socio-economic transformation, we should do this with the understanding that the foundation of any productive high–income economy lies in a globally competitive, creative and innovative workforce.’
The Deputy Minister called for an integrated approach to nurturing, attracting and retaining a first-world talent base to be implemented, emphasising that technical cooperation with Japan should be central to any interventions.
Holomisa urged all stakeholders in the economy to harness creativity, energy and initiatives of strategic partners, in particular the private sector and labour, as the primary drivers of South Africa’s growth aspirations.
‘We want to see more small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in the productive sectors of our economy participating in the programme and implementing the Kaizen philosophy, with management and workers trained and collaborating to improve the productivity of the enterprises.
‘This is one way for us to ensure optimal productivity, progress and resilient economies that will create more job opportunities and allow South Africa and the continent at large to take their rightful place amongst the best economies in the world.’
Beneficial partnership
The Productivity South Africa and Japan Productive Centre (JPC) co-operation has been in existence for the past 12 years and focuses on the promotion of productivity in Africa through sharing of Asian productivity experiences.
The Deputy Minister commended and expressed appreciation of Japan’s commitment to transferring its management philosophy and productivity improvement activities such as Kaizen, 5S, Quality Control Circle and Green Productivity to African enterprises, and in particular to the Southern African Development Community (SADC).
‘These practices and philosophies have helped Japanese companies across the world to stand head and shoulders above their peers,’ said Holomisa.
South Africa is one of 10 Pan Africa Productivity Association (PAPA) member countries that have taken advantage of the Japanese government’s offer and entered into a technical cooperation on productivity improvement agreement with the Japan Productivity Centre.
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