APO Asian Productivity Organization

The Administration and Finance (A&F) Department provides organizational, financial, and personnel management support to all Secretariat departments. It also oversees the annual Governing Body Meeting and Workshop Meeting of Heads of NPOs. Additionally, it undertakes public relations activities through information programs. The A&F Department has assumed the leading role in implementing organizational reform measures, which have been ongoing since 2005, including the adoption of a new budgeting system and the reorganization and streamlining of the Secretariat.

Productivity Information Program

The APO's information program aims to provide members and other stakeholders in the productivity movement with relevant, updated knowledge in the field. As a clearinghouse for information on productivity, the APO accomplishes this role through its publications and the APO website.

• Publications: Most APO publications are reports of proceedings and compilations of papers from selected projects. The APO also publishes a regular newsletter, the APO News, to offer reports on the organization's activities, synopses of productivity issues, regular columns, and coverage of NPO activities and other special events. In 2008, the APO started publishing manuals to provide practical guidance on specific topics based on major project findings and expert discussions.
• The APO website: Not only does the APO website provide comprehensive information on the organization and its programs but it also serves as a portal to online courses (e-learning) and productivity publications. To reach a wider audience, APO publications are produced in e-book formats and are available for download free of charge from this website. The APO website also provides quick references to productivity information such as the p-Glossary, a compilation of productivity-related terms; “Productivity Measurement,” the portal to the APO's productivity databooks and the Asian Quarterly Growth Map; Eco-products, the portal to the APO's annual directory of environmentally safe products, services, and technologies; and Green Productivity, a gateway to resources on the APO's strategy for enhancing productivity and environmental performance for sustainable socioeconomic development.

International Cooperation

The APO maintains close links with other international organizations, national agencies, and institutions within and outside the APO membership. Since the APO was established in 1961, it has collaborated with many international organizations in various capacities, including the ADBI, ASEAN Foundation, Colombo Plan Secretariat, FAO, Ford Foundation, ILO, Japan Foundation, JICA (Japan), JBIC (Japan), Keio University (Japan), OECD, UNIDO, UNDP, UNEP, USAID, World Bank/Tokyo Development Learning Center, and other governmental, academic, and industrial associations and institutions.

A recently completed international cooperation initiative is the APO's Special Program for Africa, which was launched in 2006, under a grant from the Government of Japan and continued until 2010 with additional support from the Republic of China. The African Program aimed to build capacity of various African countries to promote the productivity movement in Africa. Cooperation with the Pan African Productivity Association continues. For more details on the APO Special Program for Africa, please click here.

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