South Africa has achieved mining-led economic growth as one of the world’s leading countries in terms of mineral resources such as gold, diamonds, and platinum, but it is susceptible to trends in international commodity markets, and its trade structure, which is heavily weighted toward specific industries, has become a detriment to achieving stable economic growth. The government is trying to diversify its export industries by placing more emphasis on the manufacturing sector, which has greater employment absorption capacity for low-skilled workers and is more endogenous. To this end, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), in its strategic plan, has developed a master plan for priority industry sectors such as the automotive and garment industries, as well as explicit commitments from both the government and private sector to promote long-term growth, sustainability, and job creation. The Japanese government has focused on the automotive industry and has provided guidance on quality and productivity improvement (kaizen) (QPI (kaizen)) targeting automotive industry suppliers to strengthen corporate competitiveness. However, it has not been possible to fully establish a system for training and dissemination of QPI (kaizen) activities by local personnel, and it is necessary to establish and strengthen an organizational structure that will serve as a foundation for the sustainable and independent dissemination of QPI (kaizen) activities in the future.
Through the establishment and operation of the National Quality and Productivity Network (NQPN), the dtic and NQPN will continuously transfer QPI (kaizen) knowledge and techniques, and strengthen the human resource development and implementation systems necessary to spread QPI (kaizen) activities to a wide range of industries beyond the automotive industry. The dtic will also contribute to improving the quality and productivity of South African companies and enhancing their competitiveness by strengthening the human resource development and implementation systems needed to spread QPI (kaizen) activities to a wide range of industries beyond the automotive industry.
© Source JICA