Senior Vice President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) Faad Waheed here on Friday praised the Asian Productivity Organization’s (APO) role in Asia-Pacific’s development while emphasising the need to renew our commitment to inclusive, innovation-led productivity growth. He said while addressing the closing ceremony of a five-day training program on “Assessor of the Productivity Specialist Certification Program”, and welcomed international delegates and expressed gratitude to APO and the National Productivity Organization (NPO) for addressing this crucial topic. The National Productivity Organization (NPO), in collaboration with the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), in Tokyo, Japan has organized the training program. Faad Waheed highlighted the potential of working together with APO to find solutions to long-standing productivity challenges in Pakistan. The program would help in promoting the cause of producing Certified Productivity Professionals in Pakistan to support and propagate the agenda of creating a productivity improvement culture in Pakistan. He further said that to meet the current productivity challenges of Pakistan and to achieve sustainable productivity and economic growth, NPO Pakistan is closely working with APO Tokyo. Program Officer, APO Japan Zafarullah Khan expressed his gratitude to the government of Pakistan for their sincere efforts to continue the Productivity Movement. He appreciated the efforts of the APO Country Director for his strong leadership and support, and the NPO head for his keen interest. He also mentioned the APO and NPO team for their efforts for Productivity enhancement in the region. Zafarullah apprised the participants about the APO’s Journey of success stories and major achievements in the region. Chief Executive Officer NPO Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry thanked Senior Vice President ICCI and APO Program officer for attending the program. He said that three other APO member countries, namely Malaysia, Vietnam, and Mongolia, recently attained accreditation for their Certification bodies from APO, in alignment with the vision of their respective country leaders, with the assistance of APO, Japan. The certification body is a strategic initiative which will contribute to productivity initiatives in Pakistan. NPO is facilitating to complement and strengthen the Ministry’s mandate through its vision “Economically Productive and Globally Competitive Pakistan”. NPO is solely responsible for Productivity and Quality enhancement in Pakistan. Recently, NPO Pakistan has attained the status of Certification Body (CB) of the Asian Productivity Organization Accreditation Body (APO-AB) under the scheme of “Certified Productivity Specialists (CPS)”. As an outcome of this training, competent assessors for APO-PS 101 are equipped with skills, knowledge, and ability while maintaining the highest standards in conducting assessments; CBs’ capability is developed; and networks among assessors in member economies are strengthened. The training program was attended by 17 overseas participants representing 10 APO member countries, alongside 5 local participants. A 5-day international training workshop for assessors of the productivity specialist’s certification programme concluded here, the other day. National Productivity Organization (NPO) in collaboration with the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), in Japan organized the training workshop. Seventeen from APO member countries and five local participants attended the training while resource speakers from Singapore, Malaysia, and Mongolia delivered the lectures. The workshop was aimed at developing qualified assessors in national productivity organizations that can serve as APO-accredited certification bodies and explain the methods, criteria, and competencies required to conduct assessments for the certification of productivity specialists. The speakers addressing the closing ceremony of the event were of the viewpoint that the programme would help in promoting the cause of producing certified productivity professionals to support the agenda of creating a productivity improvement culture in Pakistan. Addressing the event as chief guest, Faad Waheed, Senior Vice President of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) lauded the role of APO in the development of the Asia-Pacific region. “It was time to revitalize our commitment to achieve its vision of inclusive and innovation-led productivity growth in the region.”