The APO’s Specific National Program is directed toward incorporating the key result areas under Vision 2025 such as the centrality of productivity, inclusive productivity, and innovation-driven productivity into National Productivity Organizations’ (NPOs) strategies and action plans. The APO recognizes that the productivity-promoting institutions such as NPOs are the main catalysts in ensuring that productivity takes center stage in national development agendas and supports the development of National Productivity Master Plans delineating the roles of NPOs and other stakeholders.

The APO is assisting the NPO of Pakistan in drafting its productivity master plan to complement the government’s public-sector development project on Improving Competitiveness through Sustainable National Productivity. The master plan is intended to improve productivity in all facets of the economy, achieve global competitiveness, raise Pakistan’s ranking in global indexes, and ensure that the gains are sustainable over the long term.

From 16 to 18 November 2021, the Vietnam National Productivity Institute (VNPI) hosted a digital observational study mission comprising 17 participants from Pakistan on Productivity Master Plan Best Practices, covering challenges faced, role of management in master plan implementation, good practices adopted by VNPI stakeholders and public-sector organizations, implementation approach, and the importance of human capital. A meeting to kick off the project on the Development of the National Productivity Master Plan for Pakistan was subsequently organized on 29 December 2021, attended by the APO Secretariat representatives, six staff of the NPO, 10 representatives of the Steering Committee Group (SCG) from Pakistan, and four members of the Korea Development Institute team. They discussed and agreed on the sectoral coverage of the project, time frame of the master plan, and other elements to be integrated in the project. Follow-up activities will involve proposals on the approach considering the sectors to be covered, confirming the data required for analysis, and possible inclusion of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics and Ministry of Commerce as SCG members.