News From : DagangHalal.com (11 Jun 2009)
SHAH ALAM, June 10 (Bernama) — The growing global opportunities in halal foods and products has encouraged the Nestle Group to boost its investment in halal manufacturing and capacity building.
Its executive vice president/zone director for Asia, Oceania, Africa and Middle East, Datuk Frits van Dijk, said this trend would augur well for Nestle Malaysia as the group continued to expand its workforce.
“Malaysia has long been recognised as Nestle Group’s halal centre of excellence and a leading exporter of halal products which account for more than 20 percent of its total turnover in this country,” he said at the graduation ceremony of 31 partipants of Nestle Malaysia’s executive diploma in manufacturing management (EDMM) programme here Wednesday.
van Dijk said Nestle employed more than 280,000 people worldwide and considered human capital development as an important investment.
“At Nestle, the average number of years of service at retirement is 27 years (in the top 20 countries that employ 80 percent of our people), and we believe that one of the reasons for the low turnover is that we help people grow in their personal capabilities,” he said.
The EDMM programme, developed jointly by Nestle Malaysia and Open University of Malaysia (OUM) was launched in 2006 to develop Nestle’s production executives into first-line managers.
The 20-month programme is based on a thoroughly-researched job analysis of the first-line manager position in Nestle factories, with each topic taught supporting a performance objective and the goal of delivering specific workplace competencies.
Nestle group’s chief executive officer, Paul Bulcke, presented the EDMM diplomas to the graduates.
Bulcke is in Malaysia as part of his tour of the Asean region.
Also present was vice chancellor/president of OUM, Professor Tan Sri Dr Anuwar Ali.
— BERNAMA