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| Ambassador's Speech>2011 >110503 | |||||
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| at the National Kaizen Seminar held in Addis Ababa on 03 May, 2011 | |||||
| Ato Getahun Tadesse, Head of Kaizen Unit, Ministry of Industry, Mr. Ota, Chief Representative of JICA Ethiopia Office, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning. Endemen aderachehu. It is a great pleasure for me to have this opportunity to speak at the National Kaizen Seminar, co-organized by the Ministry of Industry and JICA. This is exactly the meeting which I have been looking forward to attending for some time. Before I go into the subject, I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincere appreciation for the heartfelt condolences, sympathy and warm encouragement extended to us by so many people in Ethiopia when the earthquake and tsunami of unprecedented scale hit Japan last March. The Japanese people were so encouraged by the solidarity shown by Ethiopian people and those in the rest of the world. In this context, it is worth mentioning that every possible effort continues to be made, day and night, to rehabilitate the tsunami-hit areas, such as removing debris, repairing transportation networks, constructing temporary houses, etc. Untiring efforts are also being made to cope with the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. In this regard, I should mention that every precautionary measure is being taken to ensure food safety so that radioactive substances will not affect people’s health and life. Ladies and Gentlemen, Now, it is about one year since the kaizen project was started with 30 pilot companies nominated in the five sectors of textile, leather, agro-processing, chemical and metal engineering. The evaluation of this sort of project often depends on whether or not a success story emerges from among the pilot companies. If even one small success story is obtained in business it will stimulate other companies in the same sector to follow the best practice in a competitive market. As a result, that whole sector will become more efficient than before with an increasing number of competitive companies. In this kaizen project, I understand, many pilot companies are doing well in improving the quality of products and raising efficiency in manufacturing and management by applying kaizen methods. Having visited a few production sites, I was impressed by the progress made. Therefore, I would like to congratulate the Ministry of Industry and JICA on the success of this project. I also want to pay my tribute to those good performing companies as role models toward the industrial development stipulated in the GTP. Ladies and Gentlemen, Kaizen refers to a methodology that initiates continuous improvement, and it can be applied to any area. The essence of kaizen is the intention and willingness, combined with some concrete measures, to improve the quality and efficiency of any activity in any organization. In addition to the manufacturing sectors on which we are focusing now, it is applicable to services, agriculture or even the public sector. In this context, it is encouraging that the AU Commission is showing an interest in kaizen, trying to introduce it as a methodology to improve its financial management. As was experienced in several East Asian countries, if kaizen initiatives spread extensively as part of a social movement to every quarter of economic and social activities in a country, the entire national economy will become more efficient and, as a result, more competitive in the global market. This is the reason why we attach so much importance to kaizen. Today kaizen is no longer a Japanese monopoly. It is widely practiced in many countries. Everyone talks of kaizen nowadays from East Asia to Africa. Kaizen is becoming part of common international language. In these circumstances, where should we go next here in Ethiopia? Our challenge is to share the knowledge and experiences of kaizen obtained to date with the larger audience across sectors and beyond Addis Ababa. It is also important to introduce advanced kaizen methods for those companies which are eager to go further. For this purpose, it is necessary to work out an appropriate institutional framework to promote the concept of kaizen on a nationwide scale along with some incentives and a mechanism for technical assistance. The kaizen manual and audio-visual materials JICA has prepared through this project will be useful for the next stage. I will not go into further details, however, as a session on this issue will take place later on in this seminar. In conclusion, I am proud that we have made steady progress at the initial stage of kaizen in the manufacturing sector of Ethiopia. Yet, our challenges are formidable. We still have a long way to go. I believe that further progress is possible if we address the issue with our vision and wisdom. Let’s continue to work together. Thank you for your attention. Amesagenalehu. |
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