Only standardisation will

Mar 02, 2005

I read with keen interest Dr. Suruma’s strategy for revamping the development of our economy (The Sunday Vision, February 20). I wish to add to his emphasis on productivity by highlighting the sister issue of competitiveness. Large volumes of our locally produced goods can also make it to the inte

By Moses sebunya
I read with keen interest Dr. Suruma’s strategy for revamping the development of our economy (The Sunday Vision, February 20). I wish to add to his emphasis on productivity by highlighting the sister issue of competitiveness. Large volumes of our locally produced goods can also make it to the international market.

The globalisation and requirements of world trade on technical barriers to trade make standardisation a strategic imperative at the forefront of any export-led industrial development initiative. Uganda’s ability to compete in the global market is linked to standards, which are the ‘international language’ to access the market. International standards are the conduit for carrying a country’s goods and services into the global market.

Unfortunately, there appears to be little appreciation among our policy makers, legislators and technocrats in the Ministry of Finance Planning and Economic Development, about the role standardisation plays in facilitating export trade.

The national standards of developed countries can be barriers to Uganda’s exports if the exporters do not know, cannot attain or cannot certify that they have attained the standards or safety required in the importing country’s market. The ban on Uganda’s fish exports to the EU in the late 1990s, is a testimony to this argument. We need to learn from this experience because the same can befall other sectors with adverse effects on the economy.
For Dr. Suruma’s strategy to succeed, Uganda has to invest in standardisation and quality assurance programmes and to strengthen the standardisation infrastructure.

This will enable exporters to know the standards of the markets they are manufacturing for. This means strengthening the Standards Information Services such that exporters can access the requirements of their export markets. There is need to strengthen the existing testing laboratories at the Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) to attain international recognition and to issue test certificates that are internationally recognised.

Other requirements include calibration services for accurate industrial measuring instruments, establishing a laboratory accreditation system, training in quality control and quality assurance and appreciating the importance of quality among producers, exporters and the population at large.

Currently, issues related to standardisation and quality are not considered a priority by the Government. UNBS is grossly under-funded and is ill-equipped to lead Uganda’s exports drive.

The Government priorities need to be re-focused to address the capacity gaps of this critical institution and provide as much support as is required.
Otherwise, agricultural and export-led industrial development cannot be realised without making strategic investments in standards, quality and standardisation infrastructure. Standardisation will enable our goods to access international markets, trigger synergies and linkages between the industrial and agricultural sectors, whereby the agro-produce find ready market as raw materials for the industrial sector.

This will in turn lead to improved incomes and poverty eradication of the agriculture-dependent rural households. Efforts towards a sustained poverty eradication can only achieve results through sustained consideration of standardisation and quality as a matter of priority.

I wish to emphasise that standardisation is a pre-requisite for but a missing link in, Uganda’s drive towards an export-led industrial development strategy.

The writer is a public
relations officer, UNBS

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