Standardisation practices, stakeholder engagement seminar boosts trade

Friday, 22 November 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A national seminar was organised by the Sri Lanka Standards Institution (SLSI), the national standards body of Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was held recently at the Hilton Residence, Colombo.

This program was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) through the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS)-managed South and South East Asia regions (SESA) program. Over 150 participants took part in this seminar that successfully attracted many industrialists, key members representing Ministries, government agencies, universities, NGO’s and private sector companies. SLSI Chairman Dr. K. Dissanayaka warmly welcomed the participants while SLSI Director General Dr. L.N. Senaweera stressed on the impact of standardization in today’s global trade. SLSI’s internal resource persons such as M.S.S Fernando, S.U Narangoda, T. Yasaratne and M.C. Fernando presented on the national standardisation process and importantly the competitive advantages an organisation could achieve through adhering to standards and quality systems/processes. Competitive edge It was pointed out, the competitive edge an organisation possesses in terms of social, environmental and economic aspects in an environment where many organisations can be found competing with each other in the same industry. The international language of trade and commerce is standards. Therefore, adhering to globally recognised procedures would eliminate barriers to trade and the importance of private sector involvement (who has the technical expertise) in the development of national standards to accommodate the national interest was also pointed out. CCC Assistant Secretary General Gayathiri Arwind demonstrated the premier role played by the apex chamber body in Sri Lanka (Ceylon Chamber of Commerce) since 1839, to facilitate a common platform in accompanying all relevant private sector stakeholders in the implementation of standards/national and global processes. The Ceylon Chamber with a unique connection to over 500+ direct businesses, 21 bilateral councils and many business associations are working towards a better future, from a business/trade perspective. The process includes creating awareness, circulation of information among relevant stakeholders, regional development of businesses through education (organising common forums/trainings/workshops/seminars), managing donor-funded projects related to trade and standards and above all successfully building capacity through a match making of standard setting bodies and private sector organisations. Quality Shyama Perera representing the Kelani Cables PLC (ISO 9001 and 14001 certified company) shared her organisation’s experience working with quality standards/systems. She went onto say that quality is taken seriously at Kelani Cables where satisfying customer needs by providing the safest cables, conductors with the heartfelt cooperation and participation of its employees; is part of their organisation’s quality policy. Kelani products are manufactured to comply with the Sri Lankan Standards (SLS) and many other global standards, which emphasise the benefit it carries in today’s competitive market. Speaking at the event, SESA Program Manager Carina Svensson introduced the SESA program and its importance to the South and Southeast Asian region, which promotes trade and a sustainable and environmentally friendly development through standardisation. While the program operates through a wide network of stakeholders in the region (which includes SLSI and CCC), it aims to build institutional capacity that ensures a broad stakeholder commitment towards international standardisation. Further, a glimpse of SIS’s contribution towards standards development was given to the audience, which provided an insight from an International perspective. SLSI thanked the SIDA and SIS for the funding and guidance given and moreover thanked the CCC management, Gayathiri Arwind and Nilan Thimbiripola (who coordinated this event) for the invaluable and continuous support given towards the implementation of activities under the national work plan of the SESA program. The inspiring presentations of SLSI’s resource persons were highly appreciated by an active audience which paves the way to ultimately contribute to a sustained free and fair global trade. For more information about the SESA program and its national activities you may contact Nilan Thimbiripola, Regional Program Coordinator on 011-5588850 or [email protected].