PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia is on the right path for a productivity-driven economy as it seeks to fully utilise aspects from the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0).
Malaysian Productivity Corporation (MPC) chairman Tan Sri Azman Hashim said productivity is the key factor to breach the frontiers towards Industry 4.0 robust productivity initiatives.
"This will equip our citizens to face a new era of industrialisation," he said in his speech at MPC's International Forum on Productivity, here, today.
He said Malaysia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 4.2 per cent in 2016 was driven by labour productivity of 3.5 per cent.
"This encouraging trend has been observed since 2014, indicating the country's economic growth is gradually moving away from being labour-intensive and towards digital and technology-driven factors," he said.
The forum held in collaboration with the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), is themed 'Challenging the Frontier, Empowering People’ and is aimed to provide opportunities for stakeholders with global perspective to share their experiences.
The forum will also address policy challenges for higher productivity growth and discuss the implementation of productivity-enhancing programmes.
Azman said in order to boost and sustain the Malaysia's productivity, the government has also launched the Malaysia Productivity Blueprint (MPB) with the objective of achieving a 3.7 per cent productivity growth target, as was set in the Eleventh Malaysia Plan (11MP).
The blueprint presents a holistic approach towards unlocking the potential of productivity of the nation by addressing productivity challenges at national, sectoral and enterprise levels, he added.
"To transform the economy, the government is currently implementing the recommendations of the MPB through five strategic thrusts.
"The thrusts are to create manpower for the future, spearhead the digital drive and innovation, ensure industry accountability towards productivity, build a strong ecosystem and put in place a strong implementation mechanism," he added.
The two-day forum, will see attendance by 300 participants comprising industry representatives, trade associations, government officials and academicians from 14 APO countries.
A series of knowledge sharing sessions will also be held featuring productivity experts from the United States, Taiwan, Germany, Republic of Korea, Singapore and Malaysia.
Azman also hoped the forum which will see the meeting of minds from various fields and cultures will generate new ideas to address policy challenges and implementation towards achieving higher productivity growth.
"APO collaboration has enabled MPC to continuously serve the country's public and private organisations by introducing various productivity improvement programmes.
"It is hoped that through this forum, knowledge and best practices shared could be adopted for increasing efficiency of the government and the business in the respective countries," he added.
Also present were MPC director-general Datuk Mohd Razali Hussain.