Welcoming Remarks by:

YBhg Tan Sri Azman Hashim

Chairman, Malaysia Productivity Corporation

Launching of Productivity Report 2016/2017

Theme: “Challenging the Frontier, Empowering People"

31May 2016, 9.30am

Seminar Room 1, Menara MITI

Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

The Honourable Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed

Ministry of International Trade and Industry

MPC Board of Directors,

Dato’ Mohd Razali Hussain

Director General of MPC,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies & Gentlemen

1.It gives me great pleasure to welcome all of you to the LAUNCHING OF PRODUCTIVITY REPORT 2016/2017 with the theme “Challenging the Frontier, Empowering People.” On behalf of MPC, I would like to thank our special guest, The Honourable Dato’ Sri Mustapa for his presence to be here with us this morning.

2.I would like to welcome and thank representatives from industry, associations, chambers of commerce and government agencies for being here with us.My appreciation also goes to all MPC Partners who have assisted in our programmes to enhance productivity, competitiveness, and innovation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

3.The Productivity Report, anannual publication,reviews the country’s economic performance in terms of productivity, quality, competitiveness and innovation. It analyses and benchmarks the country’s productivity at the sectoral, national and international levels and provides recommendations for improvements within each. The Report,in its 24thedition, maintains the theme “Challenging the Frontier, Empowering People”. For this year’s edition, the report also highlights the recently launched Malaysia Productivity Blueprint (MPB).

4.The Blueprint is designed with a holistic approach on productivity improvements encompassing national, sectoral and enterprise levels; emphasising on strong coordination and governance for implementation certainty; and instilling productivity as a daily work culture to raise productivity of the nation that would have spillover effects on the Rakyat.The Blueprint signifies Malaysia’s aspiration to be an advanced economy predicated on highly–skilled and well-trained human capital that are motivated towards higher-value and knowledge-based activities.

5.MPC as the productivity custodian has the principal role of the Delivery Management Office (DMO) that will ensure the successful implementation of the Blueprint by coordinating, monitoring and evaluating implementation of productivity strategies by both the public and private sectors.The office will work closely with both EPU and the sector Productivity Nexus to monitor and track the implementation of productivity initiatives at the national, sector and enterprise levels. Impact assessments will also be conducted to measure the outcomes of the initiatives and MPC as the DMO will escalate issues that need to be resolved and devise remedial actions. The DMO will also implement specific initiatives on its own and in partnership with higher learning institutions and Productivity Nexus of respective sectors.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

6.MPCcontinues on the path of spearheading the country’s efforts to boost productivity and competitiveness through partnerships with various ministries, government agencies and industry associations. MPC’s collaboration with Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has been in the area of productivity improvement, facilitating industries with technical and management skills and know how. The affiliation with International Institute for Management Development (IMD), World Bank, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and World Economic Forum (WEF) signifies MPC’s endeavour in measuring and analysing the country’s productivity and competitiveness performance.

Ladies and gentlemen,

7.The Government’s effort to promote a competitive business environment through regulations hascontributed significantly to promote economic and social development. MPC continues its endeavour in supporting the Government Transformation Program (GTP) agenda with pursuanceof Good Regulatory Practice (GRP). In 2016, a total of 198 business regulations was reviewed and an estimated compliance cost savings of RM1.13 billion was generated.

8.At the enterprise level, MPC facilitates local businesses with programmes designed to tap enterprise optimal capabilities, generating a cost savings of more than to RM650 million from innovation projects in 2016 as well as another RM6.4 million generated from Lean projects.On the same note, more than 13,000 enterprises have been involved in MPC’s Productivity and Innovation programmes while a further 1,300 enterprises have adopted the Malaysia Business Excellence Framework (MBEF).

9.Additionally, MPC’s latest assessment tool to measure before and after intervention,the Productivity Gain Measurement (PGM), is making inroads among enterprises in the current 11MP period. PGM provides various productivity indicators that are interlinkedto yield productivity growth. The indicators are in the form of labour productivity, labour cost competitiveness and process efficiency to name a few. The use of these measureswill enable enterprises to sustain its competitiveness and further enhance their productivity improvement programs.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

10.MPC has always beenengaging public and private sectors to discuss on common issues and challenges concerning productivity and competitiveness at national, industry and enterprise levels. The upcoming InternationalForum on Productivity from 12th to 13th September 2017, to be held at Marriott Putrajaya is a manifestation of MPC’s commitment in challenging the productivity frontier. The Forum, showcasing productivity experts from various countries and institutions,is forward-looking and practical in its focus, providing industry playersthe avenue to share and exchange views on the strategies needed to create the new productivity frontier.

11.With that note, it is now my pleasure to invite the Honourable Minister of International Trade and Industry, Yang BerhormatDato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed to deliver his speech and subsequently launch the Productivity Report 2016/2017.

Thank you.

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