Bismillahirrahmanirrahim

Y.B. Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed,
Minister of International Trade and Industry,

Yang Berusaha Encik Mohd Razali Hussain
Director General, Malaysia Productivity Corporation,

MPC Board of Directors and Consultative Panel Members,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies & Gentlemen,

Assalamualaikum and Good Morning to everyone,

I would like to thank Yang Berhormat Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry for his presence here with us this morning.  I would also like to welcome all of you to this innovative event, CREANOVA of MPC. The event emphasises the importance of creativity and innovation in achieving Malaysia’s aspiration to be a High Income Developed Nation.  This initiative is in line with the current tagline of MPC that is “Transformation, Innovation and Partnership.”

With the recent realignment of the key functions in MPC to serve the nation better, this event focuses on innovative programmes that will create and implement systems to address the entire value chain for productivity and innovation among local enterprises.  The 5 key functions of MPC are: Enterprise Innovation, Regulatory Review, Business Excellence, Knowledge Management and Global Competitiveness.  The 2011 CREANOVA aptly named ENTERPRISE CREANOVA INTEGRATED SOLUTION or ECIS aims to provide an integrated solution on productivity and innovation for local enterprises.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In 2010, MPC conducted creative and innovative programmes and activities such as 49 Enterprise Innovation Intervention Programmes, also known as EIIP; 793 Productivity and Innovation Enhancement programmes; 155 conventions, seminars & workshops on productivity and innovation; as well as 59 Productivity and Innovation publications.  MPC has also nurtured 590 SMEs by strengthening their competitiveness on process innovation in the entire value chain.  5,771 SMEs had benefitted from MPC’s Business Efficiency Tools.

As for human capabilities development, MPC had outreached 114,102 participants for soft skills training and development of creativity and innovation culture. These programmes comprise Innovative and Creative Circles (ICC) Convention, Quality Environment Convention, Inno-Race & Best Practices showcase, Creativity & Innovation Conference, Productivity Performance & Award and Conference on Competitiveness.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In terms of Minister Key Result Areas and Key Performance Indicators (MKRA/MKPI) for 2010, MPC had achieved targets of 1.3% for Total Factor Productivity, 246 standardised innovation projects and nurtured 1,033 companies under the Business Excellence Framework (BEF).  In 2011, MPC’s programmes had been expanded to include Regulatory Review, Innovative & Creative Circle showcase series and Quality Environment showcase series.  MPC strives to support local enterprises by providing a one stop solution to facilitate their productivity and innovation enhancement initiatives.
Ladies and Gentlemen,

In today’s event, MPC has lined up many activities to reach out to everyone on the importance of inculcating the practice of creativity and innovation.  These activities include:

1. Launching of Productivity and Innovation Associate Card. This is a MPC membership programme for customer loyalty where MPC hopes to widen its outreach;
2. Presentation of commitment letters by the participating companies in the Knowledge Content Development (MyKE) programme, a joint project between the Economic Planning Unit (EPU) and MPC.
3. Productivity for Innovation Photography Contest prize giving ceremony;
4. Productivity and Innovation Clinics that offer one stop business capacity enhancement solution;
5. Knowledge sharing sessions on success stories and best practices; and
6. Exhibitions and Showcases on importance and impact of Productivity, Creativity and Innovation.

It is our hope that this event also assist the business community to enhance networking among each other. The knowledge and experiences sharing session will expand our horizon on drivers for creativity and innovation in our respective organizations for sustainable competitiveness.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Once again, I would like to thank Yang Berhormat Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, for his presence today and for his support in MPC activities.

I would also like to record my appreciation to all of you for your presence and participation today and I wish all of you an interesting and productive conference.

With that, it is now my pleasure to invite Yang Berhormat Dato’ Sri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of International Trade and Industry to deliver his speech.

Thank you.

25 February 2011