The National Productivity Secretariat (NPS) of Sri Lanka recently concluded a Technical Expert Service (TES) project aimed at strengthening the national productivity movement. The project was part of efforts by the NPS to develop pool of productivity specialists in Sri Lanka and supported by the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) under its program of strengthening the institutional capacity of national productivity organizations by assigning experts.

The TES project was structured to support the Five-Year (2016–2020) Strategic Plan of the NPS and held in two locations: Galle, in the Southern province, 26–30 June; and Badulla, in Uva province, 3–7 July. The APO assigned consultant Mohd. Lizuan of Malaysia to serve as the expert for both sessions

To achieve the organizational objectives defined in its five-year plan, the NPS focuses on extending services in the education, public, private, and community sectors. It’s objective include decentralizing NPS services by training sufficient productivity development officers (PDOs) to cover all provinces. Although more than 600 PDOs have already taken posts in district and divisional NPS branches, more are needed to meet the increasing demand for innovative productivity solutions and ensure that prompt consultations are available for provincial stakeholders in various sectors.

The training program was inaugurated by NPS Director J.M. Thilaka Jayasundara and APO Liaison Officer for Sri Lanka W.M.D. Suranga Gunarathne. The inaugural session was also attended by the chief secretaries of Galle and Badulla. The course was structured to provide holistic training in the use of productivity tools and techniques focusing on sustainable development. It also included observational site visits to tea factories to illustrate how they had adapted those tools in daily operations.