At the first APO Sustainable Productivity Summit, Secretary-General Dr. Santhi Kanoktanaporn stated that accelerating economic and technological changes had generated multiple global challenges ranging from climate change to emerging crises in food, energy, water, financial markets, and the global economy. “At the same time, those changes have also brought development and prosperity to much of the world. Central to this story of change has been productivity, in the form of new ideas, technologies, and skills that drive growth. Productivity will remain the key engine of growth in the future.”
The Secretary-General reported that the APO had set up a Futures Team and started using artificial intelligence (AI) to identify emerging global trends and driving forces to develop initiatives that promote not only traditional productivity but also sustainable productivity. “Corporate leaders and decision makers in government who adopt the business-as-usual approach risk being left behind. We cannot rely only on existing models and expect to remain relevant in the decades to come,” warned Dr. Santhi.
In his opening remarks, Deputy Director General Dr. Minoru Masujima of the International Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, acknowledged that the rise of the Internet of Things, big data, robotics, and AI had resolved social issues by creating innovative businesses and services: “Such innovations contribute not only to efficiency and labor saving but potentially boost productivity through creating totally new added value in Society 5.0.”
Delivering the keynote address, Deloitte Center for Government Executive Director William D. Eggers stressed that good government mattered a great deal when it came to a nation’s productivity. “It can either deter it or help to accelerate it,” he said, adding that, “In an age of exponential technologies, governments need to close the growing gap between how the private sector is adopting these technologies and transforming work and how the public sector now operates.”
“Governments around the world are wrestling with how to regulate technologies like AI, drones, and autonomous vehicles in ways that protect the public but allow companies to innovate. How governments regulate these technologies will have a big impact on how the technologies progress,” he concluded.
The APO Sustainable Productivity Summit was followed by a two-day Strategic Planning Workshop where APO Directors and Heads of National Productivity Organizations reviewed specific requirements and drafted future development programs.
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