In 1996, the APO adopted Green Productivity (GP) as a major thrust area. GP is a strategy that promotes cleaner productivity processes and environmentally sound practices to help increase enterprise productivity and improve environmental performance.

Key components of the ICD-DP included a series of training programs and seminars to disseminate the benefits of GP and develop capacities of fish processors, the community and concerned agency representatives on the GP related technologies. Part of this demonstration project is the preparation and dissemination of a practical guide in implementing and sustaining GP-ICD project in fishing communities. It is hoped that through this guide more fishing communities and fish processors will be able to start their own GP program.

Supply chain management is a very important factor directly related to the productivity and the overall business competitiveness. Greening of Supply Chain is an emerging concept for Asia and the Pacific region. It advocates that the purchaser uses its purchasing power to demand an improved environmental performance from the supplier upstream in the supply chain. It is also implied that the purchaser - which in many cases is a big corporation - will play a facilitators role towards its suppliers - which are usually small and medium enterprises - and help them in their efforts for becoming a more environment-friendly organization. This effect is expected to trickle down throughout the supply chain so that the entire supply chain becomes "green" or more environment-friendly.

The APO has been promoting Green Productivity (GP) as a strategy for simultaneous improvement in the productivity and the sound environmental management. GP thus helps organizations in increasing their overall competitiveness. It is well recognized that the Greening of Supply Chain constitutes a very important aspect of Green Productivity efforts of any organization.

With this background, the "Top Forum on Green Productivity - A Management Strategy to Enhance Competitiveness by Greening the Supply Chain." was organized from May 25-27, 2000 in Taipei, Republic of China. The forum brought together experts from Japan, Taiwan, Europe, and North America to share experiences and discuss the issue of Greening the Supply Chain. The forum addressed several key aspects of supply chain management, including:

1. The importance of enhancing Green Productivity (GP) by taking consideration of environmental characteristics in the purchasing decisions, including: dematerialization, minimizing the energy intensity of goods and services, enhancing recyclability, and maximizing the use of renewable resources;
2. Approaches to developing new partnerships among firms enhancing environmental and sustainable performance;
3. Identification of new roles for government such as promotion of eco-labeling programs and adoption of ISO 14000 that will provide a framework for firms to practice green purchasing;
4. Strategies for stimulating the creation of new consumption patterns; and
5. Technological breakthrough needed to encourage green purchasing.

Productivity is a board-based and multi-faced concept that cuts across various sectors and disciplines. In the most member countries, however, productivity endeavors are yet to achieve a national dimension. To setup such productivity endeavors and to make productivity an integral part of socio-economic development, top management, by they from government, industries, or union has a definite role to play.

The present publication is a compilation of papers contributed by participant and resource persons taking part in the first forum on labor management cooperation. I hope that this publication would contribute to improve labor-management relationship which is a prerequisite for productivity improvement.

This publication is the outcome of an APO Top forum on Labor-Management Cooperation held in Tokyo, Japan from 18 to 21 September 2001. The forum was ninth in a series that was initiated in 1991 in recognition of the need for greater cooperation between labor and management as inseparable partners in achieving higher productivity and competitiveness. That forums was special significant, because it formed part of the commemorative events celebrating in 40^th year of the APO’s founding.

The 2001 forum focused on “labor market flexibility” which has an important bearing on current labor-management relations. This topic has been attracting attention worldwide in light of the repaid pace of economic globalization and technological innovation, which are closely linked to labor mobility. To increase productivity and remain competitive, it is necessary for companies to make quick and effective adjustments in mobilizing the resource they process. The labor force is of course one of the most important of those resources. Hence the extent to which corporation are able maintain flexibility in the relationships between management and labor is crucial to both parties.

This publication is the outcome of an APO Top forum on Labor-Management Cooperation held in Tokyo, Japan from 11 to 15 November 1996. The forum itself was initiated in 1991 in recognition of the need for greater cooperation between labor and management as partners in productivity improvement.

The forum 1996 was the 6^th in series which emphasized among other workers’ participation. It was primarily designed to focus on how workers’ participation can promote closer labor management relations in the decision –making processes of firms. The active involvement of workers and unions in these processes that have a direct bearing on their interest can create a climate of confidence and goodwill between two parties.   

 This publication is compilation of papers contributed by leading experts who represent management, unions, and academic.   

To promote Green Productivity across sectors, APO initiated the Green Productivity Demonstration Program (GD-DP) which assists NPOs in implementing demonstration projects at the farm and community levels.

This two part guide promotes understanding of the basic concept/principles of natural farming system, vis-a vis green productivity, and integrated community development. Part I discusses Natural farming System as a GP technology for ICD. It discusses the various natural farming inputs and their uses, basic consideration and requirements in starting natural farming and other related activities. Part II focuses on managing NFS project implementation, drawing from the two-year experience of DAP sa Visayas in implementing the ICD-Demonstration Project in the pilot areas.

The present publication epitomizes the activities of the individual NPOs during the year 1976 as reported in the country papers presented at the seventeenth workshop meeting of the heads of NPOs held in Indonesia in January this year. It also included other detail heretofore incorporated in the Directory of National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) in APO member countries, the fifth and latest edition of which appeared in 1976.

The objective of this publication is to provide reader with information on the efforts of the NPOs in the APO member countries, so as to give some insight into the general trend of productivity movement in the Asian region. The APO intends to publish this series on Annual basis.

The heads of National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) in APO member countries, together with representatives form the agriculture sector, meet annually to formulate, among others, APO’s programmes and activities and to report progress on the activities of their respective organizations. Progress reports presented through country papers at the meeting are not only useful in evaluating the APO activities on the national programmes of member countries but also in preparing future programmes of the APO based on the common needs identified in these reports.

The present publication epitomizes the activities of the individual NPOs during the preceding year (1978) besides giving the basic information on their structure, organization, and finances. As such, this will help in giving a general idea of categories of activities being pursued to increase productivity in Asian region

The Heads of National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) in APO member countries, together with representatives form the agriculture sector, meet annually to formulate, among others, APO’s programmes and activities and to report progress on the activities of their respective organizations. Progress reports presented through country papers at the meeting are not only useful in evaluating the impact of the APO activities on the national programmes of member countries but also in preparing future programmes of the APO based on the common needs identified in these reports.

The present publication epitomizes the activities of the individual NPO during the preceding year (1979) besides giving the basic information on their structure, organization, and finances. As such, this will help in giving a general idea of categories of activities being pursued to increase productivity in Asian region.

The Heads of National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) in APO member countries, together with representatives form the agriculture sector, meet annually to formulate, among others, APO’s programmes and activities and to report progress on the activities of their respective organizations. Progress reports presented through country papers at the meeting are not only useful in evaluating the impact of the APO activities on the national programmes of member countries but also in preparing future programmes of the APO based on the common needs identified in these reports.

The present publication epitomizes the activities of the individual NPO during the preceding year (1980) besides giving the basic information on their structure, organization, and finances. As such, this will help in giving a general idea of categories of activities being pursued to increase productivity in Asian region.

The heads of National Productivity Organizations (NPOs) in APO member countries, together with representatives form the agriculture sector, meet annually to formulate, among others, APO’s future programmes and to report progress on the activities of their respective organizations through country papers. Such reports are not only useful in evaluating the impact of APO activities on the national programmes of member countries but also in planning future programmes of the APO in the Light of common needs expressed therein.

The present volume is an updated version of the last publication of the same title. It reports on activities of each NPO during 1982 and includes information on their structure, organization and finance. The APO hopes that readers interested in productivity improvement will find the publication useful inasmuch as it give a general idea of the nature of the activities being pursued to increase productivity in the Asian region.     

For over ten years, the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) has been organizing annually the Top Management Forum, which is now more popularly known as the Kyoto forum. At this forum, various aspects of corporate strategies and practices based upon the experience of Japanese Business Corporation have extensively been presented and discussed. Member countries have found in this forum to be great values in the light of relevance to their own business environment.

The current publication is a compilation of presentation made at the 1997. Forum by senior executives of leading Japanese firms and organizations, in addition to one executive invited from the Republic of China as a special speaker. It is hoped that this volume will provide rich food for thought to member countries on the latest development of interfirm information networks.

In recent years, there has been much discussion on the development of the Japanese management system which played an important role in the bringing about Japan’s economic success. Since 1984, the APO has been organizing top management forum in which various spectra of corporate management are the extensively discussed based upon Japanese experience. The eighth forum which was conducted in Kyoto, Japan from 24^th to28th February 1992 highlighted the subject of human centered management. The Japanese experience presented at this forum would hopefully provide Asian Top executives with a food of thought for identifying the principle, application, and universality of the subject in the Asian context.

The present publication is a compilation of resource papers and the forum report. The APO hopes that it will be of interest and benefit to corporate executive and HRD and personnel management who may find a strong sense of value in human-centered management as a key factor for dynamic management.

This forum has a history of 19 years since it was first held in1985. Over those years, it has covered a host of thought-provoking issues and problem prevalent among Japanese Business Corporation. The theme of this year was focused on Corporate Governance, which is considered one of the most crucial issues for maintaining public trust in Business Corporation, thereby increasing their productivity and competitiveness.

Corporate Governance relates to internal mechanisms for operating and controlling business corporations. In other words, who control them, for whom they are controlled, and how they are controlled are the essence of corporate governance.

The current publication is a compilation of presentations made at the 2003 Kyoto forum by the distinguished speakers from leading firms and organization in Japan. It is hope that reader will gain new insight from this publication on how business corporation should develop, operate, and strengthen their corporate governance system for higher productivity and competitiveness.

For over ten years, the Asian Productivity Organization (APO) has been organizing annually the Top Management Forum. The forum has covered various thought-provoking and future oriented issues and problem experienced by Japanese business Corporation. Recent themes included Green productivity, Knowledge Management, networking among small and medium firms, and quality excellent firms.

In view of increasing interest in knowledge management among APO member countries, the 2002 Top Management Forum examined how business organizations should strengthen their competitiveness and improve productivity through the introduction and application of knowledge management. The current publication is a compilation of presentations made at the forum by the distinguished speakers from business and academic institutions in Japan. It is hope that reader will gain new insight on how Japanese corporation have attempted to become more innovative and competitive through knowledge management.

This publication is outcome of an APO forum for trade unions leaders, which was held in Singapore from August 25 to 28, 1992.

Although in the past trade union functionaries have attended APO’s programme, particularly those relating to labor-management relation and cooperation, this APO forum was the first of its kind and was designed exclusively for trade unions leaders. The main objective of this forum was to provide an opportunity to union leaders from across Asia and Pacific to meet and exchange views and thought on productivity, identify the emerging socio-economic and technological changes, intra-nationality and globally, and develop strategies and police to cope with them.

The APO hopes that this publication will be of interest to trade unions, public agencies, academics, researchers and all who are interested in trade union policies and concern in productivity improvement.