Africa-Press – Mauritius. The Grand Winners of the third edition of the National Productivity and Quality Convention (NPQC) 2020-2021 were announced this afternoon, during an award ceremony organised by the National Productivity and Competitiveness Council (NPCC) , in Ebène. The theme of NPQC 2020 was ‘Pursuing Quality and Productivity amidst COVID-19 pandemic’.
The Grand Winners, who were selected among eight Gold winners in three distinct categories are as follows:
Small and Medium private enterprises including micro enterprises: Nabridas and Box Manufacturing Ltd
Large private enterprises: Archemics Ltd
Government departments, parastatals and registered associations: Rajiv Gandhi Science Centre Trust Fund
The Grand Winners in each category received a memento and a certificate of participation.
They will represent Mauritius at the 46th International Convention on Quality Control Circles – 2021 (ICQCC-2021) in Hyderabad, India. In his address on the occasion, the Executive Director of the NPCC, Mr Ashit Kumar Gungah, congratulated the Gold awardees while emphasising that all participants are winners.
He stated that the main objective of the NPQC is to develop the culture of continuous improvement and innovation. To this effect, the Council has decided to rebrand the NPQC as National Productivity and Quality Excellence award, he announced.
Mr Ashit Gungah underlined that the productivity and quality excellence framework will be developed with a view to help organisations navigate with the changes, transformation, and disruptions that they face every day.
A National Productivity and Quality Excellence convention will be organised every two years, that will enable organisations understand gap and solutions, grow and improve performance on their journey towards excellence, he added.
The Executive Director also remarked that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered new ways for organisations to operate and stressed that resilience is key for business success during these trying times.
He indicated that some 100 registrations were received for the NPQC 2020-21 and over 51 were centered on business resilience and focused on themes including: business continuity, lean management, innovation, amongst others.
As for the Minister of Industrial Development, SMEs and Cooperatives, Mr. Soomilduth Bholah, who intervened virtually, congratulated all participants for their endeavor to enhance productivity and quality standards of their respective organizations.
The Minister underlined that the Convention is an excellent platform to showcase value creation through productivity and quality improvement projects implemented by SMEs, large enterprises and other institutions.
Mr. Soomilduth Bholah highlighted that the Convention provides a benchmark on productivity and quality and inspires the local business community to upgrade way they operate.
The Convention, he said, motivates enterprises to strive through sustained efforts to enhance productivity and quality with emphasis on team work as well as provides an opportunity for learning and the exchange of success stories among participants.
Speaking about the COVID-19 pandemic, he opined that it has been a major shock that necessitated reorganisation of production processes. There is a need to readapt, reengineer and remodel, he said.
As we are all geared towards economic recovery, productivity, quality and innovation are key factors to sail through tough competition, he stressed. Minister Bholah also called upon the NPCC to consolidate its actions to enhance productivity and competitiveness in the socioeconomic landscape of Mauritius.
In addition, he reiterated Government’s vision to maintain the position of the country as the best economy for investing in Africa and to thrive for a higher position on the international level.
The Minister observed that in this journey of recovery, and transformation we are all together and it is with our common goal to building a resilient and sustainable economy that we will succeed.
