APO Secretary-General Ryuichiro Yamazaki spoke at the Inaugural Ceremony of the Multilateral Conference on the Productivity Movement in Bangladesh: Strategy for 2021 held on 2 October 2011 in Dhaka. Over 400 guests coming from various sectors attended the conference, which was jointly organized by National Productivity Organisation (NPO), Ministry of Industries, and APO Society for Bangladesh. The conference was honored by the presence of Her Excellency Sheikh Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh, who formally declared productivity a national movement to be implemented nationwide.

SG Yamazaki congratulated the Bangladesh government on its 29 years of membership in the APO and the NPO on its dynamism in leading the country’s productivity movement. In 2010 alone, the NPO facilitated the participation of over 350 Bangladeshi professionals in various APO training courses, seminars, and e-learning courses. SG Yamazaki also noted that Bangladesh had done well in improving its labor productivity, showing a 4% growth from 2005 to 2008. He hoped that the NPO would continue to be an effective beacon of progress as Bangladesh moves toward its transformation into a mid-level-income country by 2021. He mentioned that the APO, for its art,  remained ready to provide capacity-building knowledge that would enable the NPO to improve productivity in the country’s industry, service, agriculture, and public sectors.