In its efforts to equip participants with essential management consultancy skills that incorporate the concept and techniques of Green Productivity (GP), the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) is organizing a training course on Management Consultancy Focusing on SMEs. The course is being conducted in Taipei in collaboration with the China Productivity Center (CPC).

The 12-day course was inaugurated by CPC Integrated Business and Training Services Division Director Dr. Eugene Yu-Ying Lin on 11 September 2017. It is attended by 18 participants from 10 APO member countries and will familiarize them with the latest trends in GP, sustainability, and sustainable productivity growth with a focus on the circular economy, visualization of material and energy flows, and identification of new business models. It will also serve as a platform for exchanging experiences and best practices on management consultancy for SMEs to enhance their sustainable productivity.

GP represents a strategy that simultaneously enhances productivity and alleviates negative environmental impacts. It combines appropriate productivity and environmental management tools, techniques, and technologies that improve performance and profitability while addressing environmental concerns, thus leading to more sustainable growth in productivity and more comprehensive socioeconomic development.

The APO started to provide training on management consultancy skills more than five decades ago. However, since the millennium, the training has placed more emphasis on SMEs and GP to address the environmental concerns derived from the rapid economic growth in its member countries. Similar training courses were held in Fiji and Japan.

Three APO-assigned international experts are conducting the course: EcoSol Ltd. Director Catherine Touzard from France; Institut für Umweltinformatik Hamburg GmbH Project Manager Mieke Klein from Germany; and Hoclink Systems & Services Pte. Ltd. Managing Director and Principal Consultant George Wong from Singapore. Three local experts, National Taiwan University Professor of Environmental Engineering Hwong-Wen Ma, Taiwan Circular Economy Network Deputy CEO Shadow Chen, and Taiwan Institute of Economic Research Advisor Chang-Erh Chou, will also share good policies and practices from the ROC. Participants will visit the circular economy practitioners Hair O’right International Corporation and Singtex Industrial Co., Ltd. to observe new business models contributing to a circular economy; they will conduct consulting skill practices by visiting a locally well-known food and beverage provider.

As a long-time supporter of sustainable development initiatives through the APO Center of Excellence on GP based in the ROC, Dr. Lin encouraged participants to leverage the good practices observed in Taipei and capacity developed in this training course to disseminate the concept of GP and help SMEs in their home countries to achieve sustainable productivity growth.