The last financial
year was to start under the theme of innovation. However, two events were
to delay the launch of the innovation campaign. First, the Council was being
reconstituted. And second, NPCC’s resources had to be diverted as a matter
of urgency to deal with an unexpected situation: the crisis in the textile
sector which paved the way for a major breakthrough in benchmarking.
BENCHMARKING
In July 2003 a joint public-private
sector committee was set up to respond to the needs of the textile industry.
Chaired jointly by the JEC and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development,
the Textile Emergency Support Team (TEST) had to assess whether the sector
still had a future in so far as government wanted to be sure that good money
was not being poured after bad money. As an independent, neutral, objective
measure was required, we proposed to assess enterprises, free of charge,
using the RAPMODS (the Ramsay Productivity Models). The offer was accepted
and Dr. Ramsay worked with our team during August 2003 to measure the efficiency
and effectiveness of some 20 enterprises. Fifteen clinics, i.e. individual
meetings with the management team of the enterprises, were held to explain
the measurement and to assist management in better utilizing the tool. Presentations
were made to bankers and to the Bank of Mauritius on the interpretation
of the indicators generated by the model. The Development Bank of Mauritius
insisted that all enterprises from the textile industry requesting a loan
should produce a TEST Level I Assessment report.
By the end of the financial year,
50 enterprises had been assessed and the indicators are posted on our website.
The names of the enterprises are confidential. Indeed, the individual reports
are submitted only to the enterprise, unless otherwise directed by it.
Therefore, thanks to the TEST
programme, we have a unique database of indicators for the local textile
industry by size, product group, and market. It will have to be updated
and we hope eventually to be able to obtain data from other countries so
as to enable international comparisons to be made.
The benchmarking programme was
further reinforced by the presence of Messrs Barton and Mann, delegated
by the Commonwealth Secretariat to follow up on the Self Assessment and
benchmarking project initiated in the previous year.
Also in the context of TEST and
benchmarking, given that marketing had been identified as a weakness in
many enterprises, we organized in collaboration with the International Trade
Centre of Geneva a presentation of THE FiT, a benchmarking tool to assess
a firm’s export potential.
Although these various benchmarking
tools are available, it must be acknowledged that enterprise culture in
Mauritius has not yet fully embraced benchmarking as the lynchpin of competitiveness.
More sensitization efforts must be carried out, not only by NPCC but also
by private sector institutions, to ensure that corrective actions are taken
at firm level in anticipation of, and not in reaction to, change.
AGENDA 2003-2005
Except for the activities carried
out in the context of TEST, all those implemented during the year were part
of the strategy document, “Laying the foundations for a competitive future”,
published at the beginning of 2003. This Annual Report will be looking at
what has been achieved under each agenda item. Each of the eleven headings
is the responsibility of a specific unit. The units have been created as
part of NPCC’s strategy to put in place a structure that would ensure sustenance
and consolidation.
STRUCTURING NPCC
The NPCC will continue to have
a flat, seamless structure which encourages versatility and teamwork, and
which, thus, approaches competitiveness in a holistic manner encompassing
the individual, the firm, the industry and the country. The structure is
described in detail later in this report. The broad logic behind each of
the units is given below.
Social Capital Development
is as important as Corporate Business Development
in productivity enhancement at the national level, especially as it touches
on the soft elements of productivity. With productivity gains being very
much driven by ICT, E-Productivity and the
Knowledge and Innovation Zone are pillars as
well as enablers. And as the organization has now four years of existence,
it is time to monitor
and assess the different programmes so as to ensure their continued relevance.
Given that many foreign delegations
have visited Mauritius and shown interest in our activities, it has been
decided to create an International Business Services unit to share and export
our experience. During the year under review, I was invited by the Kaizen
Institute to present the Muda-Free Mauritius concept at a conference held
in Dubai for several countries from the Middle East. A memorandum of understanding
was also signed with Straconsult, a private consultancy firm, to explore
the avenues for joint public-private sector initiatives to make of Mauritius
a knowledge hub. Thus, we were invited to Lesotho to present to their textile
industry our assessment and productivity improvement tools.
There have been delays in the
structuring process. A salaries commissioner was appointed in September
2003, his report was submitted in February 2004, but it had not yet been
officially approved at the end of the financial year. Once this is done,
the priority will be to recruit staff and also explore ways of outsourcing
some activities.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS
It must be stressed that all
our activities are geared towards meeting our core objective of developing
a productivity culture and our mission of making Mauritius Muda-Free, i.e.
to identify, reduce and eliminate all non value-adding activities.It is
not surprising to see that a lot of effort was devoted to the Muda-free
public service project carried out in collaboration with the
ministry of Civil Service Affairs and Administrative Reforms.
NPCC embarked on another first
in the world with the launching of the Muda-Free City
of Port Louis programme. The Lord Mayor of Port Louis and the City
council and staff have shown a lot of commitment and we hope that the results
obtained will allow us over time to hold the City of Port Louis as a model.
It must be pointed out that this is an ambitious programme with a long term
horizon.
Even before coming to the city,
NPCC was requested in 2003 by Hon. D. Nagalingum, Private Parliamentary
Secretary for Moka- Quartier Militaire, and the Moka district council to
work out a project for the Mohunlal Mohith Award. The concept developed
was to encourage integrated community
development through the empowerment of the citizen at the village
level, working in teams, to identify collectively the immediate problems
affecting their village and to come up with solutions on their own. The
best project was given a seed capital of Rs. 100,000 in December 2003.
In October 2003, we had the pleasure
of welcoming in our offices, the Chief Commissioner of Rodrigues.
A presentation of our services was made and
it was agreed that we would respond to requests for intervention. In June
2004, a training on open source was conducted in collaboration with the
Human Resource Centre and an ICT-based community development project is
being worked out for Marechal College at the request of the rector.
The emphasis on learning by doing
was also integrated in the CATs
(Civic Action Teams) for the education sector. Whereas in previous
years the best presentations were given recognition at the National Convention,
the innovation last year was to have the jury visit the schools five months
later to judge how far the teams had implemented what they had proposed.
The best team was rewarded by NPCC sponsoring them to take part in the International
Convention on Student Quality Control Circles held in Lucknow in December
2003.
In the context of non-formal education,
NPCC continued to act as the legal entity for the Computer
Proficiency Project (CPP). As at end June 2004, 24 851 persons had
followed the course.
As part of our strategy to give
international exposure to deserving Mauritians, we facilitated the participation
of a group of Mauritian innovators in Genius
Europe held in Hungary in May 2004. This participation was made possible
through our contacts with the Hungarian Association of Inventors and was
meant to gain experience and benchmark ourselves with what was happening
elsewhere. It was also a component of the process to encourage innovation
and creativity in Mauritius. It coincided with the launching of the Innovators
Mauritius Award, itself an outcome of the round table discussions
held in September 2002 on the theme Innovate or Evaporate.
International
networking is important
if we want to keep abreast of changes occurring in the world. We are members
of international organizations in the areas of clustering, benchmarking,
productivity and competitiveness. I was also invited to present papers at
conferences/meetings organized by United Nations Development Programmes/Department
for International Development/ World Bank in London in December 2003; by
SADC and the Botswana Productivity Centre in Botswana in April 2004 and
by the Kaizen Institute in Dubai in May 2004. At the invitation of the government
of Finland, I was a member of a Mauritian delegation that went to Finland
in February 2004. This visit was an opportunity to establish links with
Finnish counterparts in the area of innovation.
The ILO Turin Centre welcomed
in April 2004 its first NPCC staff, Mr. R. Jutliah, for training in clustering.
A clustering cell has been set up to coordinate clustering activities in
Mauritius and to act as an information broker.
FUTURE ACTIONS
The major activity over the next
financial year will be related to innovation. It is planned to hold a National
Innovation Summit in September to be followed by the Innovators Mauritius
Award Nite. An innovation mark has also been prepared and will be launched.
The objective is to start a process of putting in place an innovation system
that would ensure the long term competitiveness of Mauritius.
The Knowledge and Innovation Zone
will have to play a more proactive role, especially in the promotion of
open source software as a means to encourage creativity and increase access
to ICT.
Action will also be initiated
with respect to Green Productivity, the one agenda item on which not much
has been done so far.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
NPCC today has succeeded in building
a network of partners without whom not much could have been achieved. These
partners range from ministers, ministries, departments, private sector institutions,
parastatal bodies, to NGOs, trade unions, the media (the MBC in particular),
municipal and district councils . Our deepest thanks go to them.
I must make a special mention
for our first chairman, Mr. José Poncini, who, still with us as a member,
passed on the torch to Mr. Jean-Noel Humbert in February of this year. Mr.
Poncini’s relentless quest for simplifying concepts and his belief in the
continuous questioning of ideas have been instrumental in taking the NPCC
to where it is today. I must associate in the thinking process all those
council members who were present when we worked out our problem and objective
trees in June 2000. The objective tree has helped us to keep to our course,
to be coherent in our actions and its relevance has been confirmed by events
and experts, and by the fact that several international institutions have
been willing to assist us or be our partners.
Finally, I must place on record
my appreciation for the support the present chairman and council have extended
to me, especially in the context of my chairmanship of a steering committee
on the merger of EPZDA, MIDA and SUBEX-M. Thanks to the dedication of the
NPCC staff at all levels and volunteers from different quarters, ideas were
translated into concrete projects in a timely manner and we could complete
successfully our third financial year.
Nikhil TREEBHOOHUN
Executive Director
Annual Report 
