Upholding standards key to diversification � Seretse
Pauline Dikuelo | Wednesday May 10, 2017 18:00
The Minister was officially opening the first International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) workshop on financial sustainability for national standards bodies this week. The workshop, which was organised by the Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS), is being held to discuss ways in which developing countries could overcome their dependency on government funding.
He said that sustainability of National Standards Bodies is critical in enabling the ability to develop standards and provide training to facilitate their implementation, provide conformity assessment services as well as trade metrology services.
“For it’s only when our goods and services comply with standards and attested as such, we can grow and diversify our economy through access to international markets. The government has committed to standardisation as a vehicle for improving enterprise competitiveness and the quality of life of its citizens,” he said.
According to the Minister, the workshop is important especially that the country is also challenged and affected by the dwindling financial capacity to fund many projects including the National Standards Body.
He said this is in spite of the importance the government attaches to its existence and development in its quest to grow and diversify the country’s economy, through improvement of important tools and mechanisms in standardisation and conformity assessment issues.
“The workshop came at a better time, a time when we have experienced challenges with providing adequate finances to our parastatals and asking them to do more with less while recognising that there is limit to what less can achieve,” he said.
The Minister further said the government has committed to standardisation as a vehicle for improving the quality of life of Batswana. In addition he said the country’s full membership of ISO through the national standards body, BOBS is meant to ensure that Botswana keeps pace with international systems of standardisation so that developmental efforts are in sync with global norms and practices.
According to the Minister, BOBS has developed a total of 176 standards in the agriculture and food, building and construction, chemicals, environmental management, electrical and electronics, mechanical engineering and textile and leather sectors.
He added that in the financial year 2016/2017, the government’s focus was to develop standards in areas that have been identified as growth areas and would have an immediate contribution to diversification of the economy.
Other activities include delivering 40 courses and training 720 personnel for enterprises in the area of Standardisation and Conformity Assessment and Testing and Certification Services.
“To facilitate consumer protection 1,579 instruments of trade were calibrated including 55 weighbridges.”
The three-day workshop, which ends today, was expected to address issues of financial structure management, sources of revenue and allocation of resources, marketing and communications, risk management as well as financial structure management.
The workshop is the first in a series of workshops to be held in other parts of the world to implement the 2016-2020 ISO’s Action plan for developing countries.