Addis Ababa, 17 September 2014 (WIC) – Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn declared the month of Meskerem (September) to be a month of kaizen to be observed country wide with various programs marked with the specific theme for years to come.
Speaking on the key issues of the 2014 month of kaizen at the first Kaizen council meeting held at his office yesterday, the premier vowed to scale up achievements attained so far in manufacturing and human resource development and to customize and disseminate kaizen to apply to low cost housing, infrastructure, the strategic service sector, in education from kindergarten to higher learning institutions and to institutionalize kaizen training in Regional States.
Kazuhiro Suzuki, Ambassador of Japan to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union, on his part said that Japan is planning to establish human resource development centers in Africa and the KAIZEN activities in Ethiopia are to serve as a model for this center.
Ambassador Suzuki further expressed his wishes that KAIZEN will prove to be a valuable tool by contributing to Ethiopia’s economic growth and that all African countries will incorporate the kaizen philosophy into their countries’ policies in the near future.
In order to achieve this, the Japanese government would like to enhance its cooperation with the Ethiopian government.
Kaizen is a management philosophy. Expanding it into a national policy with people, businesses and organizations from all over the country employing this philosophy may prove to be challenging, but will be well worth the effort, Ambassador Suzuki said, adding that Japan’s expectation for Ethiopia’s future are overwhelmingly positive.
He added that Kaizen’s most important emphasis is on productivity improvement, and this is what Ethiopia needs most from now on. Everyone knows today that Ethiopia is and will continue to be undergoing tremendous economic development.
However, in order to achieve stable and long-term economic growth, constant productivity improvement is indispensable to Ethiopia. From this perspective, the introduction of kaizen is vitally important.
JICA Chief Representative, Kimiaki Jin, presented Kaizen’s role over the next 5 years while JICA Chief Advisor of the Ethiopian Kaizen project assessed the dissemination of Kaizen in Ethiopia.
The focus of Japanese assistance towards Africa is human resource development. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reaffirmed this point during his speech at AU Headquarters this January.