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| Ambassador's Speech>2010 >101211 | |||||
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| at the Seminar on Kaizen On-site Managerial Skills Training for Metalworking Engineering Enterprises On 11 December, 2010 |
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| Your Excellency, Ato Mekuria, Minister of Urban Development and Construction, Mr. Ohashi, World Bank Country Director for Ethiopia, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning. Endemen aderachehu. It is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity to speak on the occasion of the ‘Seminar on Kaizen On-site Managerial Skills Training,’ organized by the Enterprise Center Ethiopia. Kaizen is such a good Japanese word. But it is no longer a Japanese monopoly as it is quite widely practiced in various countries, including Singapore. Kaizen is a fairly internationalized movement today. Everyone talks of kaizen from Asia to Africa nowadays. Kaizen is a methodology, which can be applied to any area. The essence of kaizen is the intention and willingness, combined with concrete, pragmatic measures to improve the quality and efficiency of any activity in any organization. Right now, the kaizen movement is being carried out in selected manufacturing sectors in Ethiopia. But it is also applicable to services, agriculture or even the public sector. It is encouraging that the AUC has started to learn about kaizen and to introduce it as a methodology to improve the financial management of its organization. Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, The history of kaizen in this country is relatively new, if I understand correctly. In July 2008, my predecessor was sounded out by PM Meles whether Japan could extend industrial development cooperation to Ethiopia, including policy dialogue with Japanese scholars of development economics. Around the end of 2008, this request materialized in the form of a seminar held here in Addis Ababa on methodology for industrial development, in which the two Prof. Ohnos took the lead, and officials from the Japanese Embassy, JICA and the Ethiopian Government participated. Based upon the discussions that took place at the seminar and further talks with PM Meles, the current framework of industrial development cooperation was established between our two governments. This framework has the following two pillars: The first pillar is policy dialogue to share with Ethiopian counterparts the experiences and knowledge of industrialization in Japan and other East Asian countries. The First High Level Forum was held in June 2009. Since then, six rounds of dialogue have been held to date on various aspects of industrialization. Recommendations for the industrialization of Ethiopia will be presented at the end of this dialogue, scheduled for next spring. The second pillar is the Kaizen Project to improve quality and efficiency in manufacturing. 30 pilot companies have been selected in five priority manufacturing sectors for this purpose. An analysis is made of the ways these companies are operated, one by one. After that, advice is given on improving management skills and initiating programs to improve the quality and efficiency of production. This project is still underway under JICA’s supervision. Some progress has already been reported informally, comparing the situation before and after the training and advice. Therefore, I am quite positive about this project, and I am looking forward to the report which is due to be submitted next spring. Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen, The Kaizen Project JICA has implemented and the one Prof. Sonobe’s team has promoted with the WB funding are complementary in nature. In the former, the number of companies targeted is relatively small but intensive training and advice is given based upon in-depth analysis of individual companies. As part of the Project, kaizen manuals together with audiovisual teaching materials will be produced for the Kaizen Unit to use in their own campaigns in the future. In the latter project, the number of targeted companies is extensive, covering almost half of all companies, large and small, engaged in metal engineering in Addis Ababa and its vicinity. A good sample size will be used for a more generalized assessment of the usefulness of the kaizen initiative. I am also looking forward to reading the findings of this assessment next April. With these two valuable projects underway, working in parallel, a kind of synergy effect may be expected through close contact and the sharing of information and know-how by the two teams. If the Embassy of Japan can be of any help, we are always ready to work with you. Finally, I do hope the Ethiopian Government will make the most use of these two projects so that the quality of products and efficiency of management will be drastically improved in the Ethiopian manufacturing sector. Thank you for your attention. Amesegenalehu. |
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