Opening session on Day 1 (Monday, 2 July)
Ms. Momoko Suzuki of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), moderator of the plenary session, invited the following four speakers to deliver short welcoming remarks; Mr. Shigeyuki Hiroki, Ambassador of Japan to South Africa, Mr. Mthunzi Mdwaba, Chair of Productivity South Africa (PSA) Board, South Africa, Mr. Shigeru Maeda, Senior Vice-President of JICA and Ms. Fawzia Peer, Deputy Mayor, eThekwini Municipality, South Africa.

The first opening speech was given by the Minister of Labour of South Africa, Ms. Mildred Oliphant. The minister stated that they are grateful of Japan’s commitment to share Kaizen Philosophy and Activities with them African continent. Kaizen had been adopted in the companies in the African Continent and already contributed productivity improvements. She stressed that productivity improvements must be a part of combination of many factors, and not a stand-alone initiative that fails to observe the key pillars of the decent work. Kaizen helps improvement through training and retraining, and also Kaizen practitioner would be able to mitigate undesired outcome of economic growth in Africa. She, lastly, thanked The New Partnership for Africa’s Development Agency (NEPAD), JICA, in partnership with Productivity South Africa under the auspices of the Pan-Africa Productivity Association (PAPA), for hosting the conference.

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