“Way To Go, Singapore”

Nationwide movement launched to boost productivity efforts, 4 additional sectors identified to boost productivity drive

03 January 2012

1. The National Productivity and Continuing Education Council (NPCEC) has identified four new sectors of interest with the potential to boost the national productivity drive. The identified sectors are: financial services, accountancy, social services and process construction & maintenance. These sectors, together with the 12 priority sectors identified in 2010, will expand the scope of sectors reviewed by the NPCEC from 40% to approximately 55% of Singapore’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and from 55% to 60% of employment in Singapore. This was announced by NPCEC Chairman, Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, at the official launch of Way to Go, Singapore, a nation-wide public outreach effort on the national productivity drive.
2. DPM Tharman said, “The NPCEC has made good progress since 2010. We have completed and endorsed most of the productivity roadmaps for 12 priority sectors. This sectoral approach has served us well and the newly-identified sectors will give further momentum to the national productivity drive. The economic situation ahead may be challenging. We need to push on with our productivity efforts so that Singapore can continue to grow and compete despite constraints on our land and labour resources. The drive to boost productivity is therefore a long-term one that requires a sustained national effort, involving everyone.”
3. Complementing the efforts of the NPCEC is a public outreach effort which will be rolled out from today. Real-life experiences and stories of companies, employees and employers who “found a way” to improve productivity in their organisations will be featured in print, online, broadcast and outdoor platforms. For instance, DPM Tharman visited a local printing company, Asiawide Print Holdings (See Annex A), to see how the local SME has embarked on a productivity drive to achieve better business outcomes and benefits for its workers.
4. Through the use of simple terms and striking visuals, the campaign aims to demonstrate that improvements in productivity can be initiated by anyone through three easy steps: Initiate, Innovate, and Impact. Companies and individuals are encouraged to join in the nation-wide productivity movement via the campaign portal (www.waytogo.sg), which will serve as a one-stop resource point for their productivity journeys. Aside from the portal, collaterals will also be produced to help companies take their first step towards improving productivity.
5. DPM Tharman said: “This outreach represents NPCEC’s commitment and effort to renew the nation’s understanding of productivity. We hope that everyone, from senior management to the man on the street, will see productivity as a national imperative, and will be part of the movement. Every effort, no matter how small, is crucial. With everyone onboard, we will be better able to weather the challenges ahead, and achieve sustained and inclusive growth for Singapore.”

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Annex A - About Asiawide

Asiawide Print is a Singapore-based company that provides pre-press, onpress and post-press printing services to more than 300 multinational companies across a myriad of industries globally. A recognised leader with customers from the financial and technological sectors, Asiawide Print is trusted with the important task of ensuring strict adherence to corporate identity, coupled by uncompromising confidentiality.

Asiawide Print aspires to be recognised as the World’s Professional Printer in delivering Premium printing to their customers. The company also believes in building a sustainable approach towards environmental health benefits and addresses safety concerns of the printing industry.

In line with its sustainable approach Asiawide Print uses soy ink with vegetable oils to reduce the environmental burden of the printing industry. Soybean inks come from a renewable source and soybean agriculture uses only 0.5 percent of the total energy needed to produce. The final print product is one that is not considered hazardous and can be treated easily, completely
and cost-effectively.

The number of customers educated through Asiawide Print’s ‘Green UP’ Team to promote recycled paper doubled since ‘Green UP’ started. Thanks to their customers’ efforts, Asiawide Print managed to save 8,000 trees in the last 3 years.

As a part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) towards community development, Asiawide Print supported Care Channel programmes and has helped uplift the lives 400 impoverished families in the Philippines in 2011.

In recognition of its stellar support of green initiatives, Asiawide Print was awarded the Prestigious Asian Print Awards as the top printing company supporting green initiatives in Asia. The competition included printers from China, India, Australia, Thailand, Japan, Hongkong, Malaysia, Indonesia, amongst others.