Back and Next - Back and NextDoSTIE, stakeholders meet on standards for access to export market
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The department of state for Trade, Industry and Employment, in collaboration with the West Africa Quality Program, last Thursday, convened a one-day seminar on the importance of standards for access to export markets, at the Paradise Suites Hotel in Kololi.
The seminar brought together participants from DoSTIE, actors from the private sector, government institutions, department of veterinary services, producers’ association, consumer protection, among others.
Abdou Kolley, secretary of state for Trade, Industry and Employment, told the gathering that The Gambia had huge export potentials in a number of sectors including the groundnut, fisheries, livestocks and horticultural sectors. According to him, these potentials are not being fully exploited due to a number of factors. He noted that "the country’s competitiveness remains at stake if no concrete actions are taken to address the issue in a holistic manner".
SoS Kolley emphasised that issues of standard and quality will enhance the standard of living and condition of the Gambian population, noting that a serious attention needs to be given towards checking the quality of food imported into the country, to avoid poor standard foods coming in.
On the issue of his department’s stand on standards and quality, the DoSTIE SoS revealed that despite the ill-equipped nature of laboratories that reduced their capabilities to carry out their functions effectively, his department of state has recently launched the Ecowas quality programme to strengthen competitiveness and to ensure compliance with international trade rules and regulations, in particular the WTO agreement, through the establishment or strengthening of national and regional support infrastructures for improvement of quality and delivery along the lines of international good practice of support services in standardization, conformity assessment and accreditation.
Concerning the need to address imported food, DoSTIE, according to the SoS, had requested CODEX and SPS committee to draft national standard for fats and oil, for implementation this year."These have already been reviewed and will be gazetted soon. My department of state also intends to set up a national standard bureau, and work in this regards , " he stated.
The seminar brought together participants from DoSTIE, actors from the private sector, government institutions, department of veterinary services, producers’ association, consumer protection, among others.
Abdou Kolley, secretary of state for Trade, Industry and Employment, told the gathering that The Gambia had huge export potentials in a number of sectors including the groundnut, fisheries, livestocks and horticultural sectors. According to him, these potentials are not being fully exploited due to a number of factors. He noted that "the country’s competitiveness remains at stake if no concrete actions are taken to address the issue in a holistic manner".
SoS Kolley emphasised that issues of standard and quality will enhance the standard of living and condition of the Gambian population, noting that a serious attention needs to be given towards checking the quality of food imported into the country, to avoid poor standard foods coming in.
On the issue of his department’s stand on standards and quality, the DoSTIE SoS revealed that despite the ill-equipped nature of laboratories that reduced their capabilities to carry out their functions effectively, his department of state has recently launched the Ecowas quality programme to strengthen competitiveness and to ensure compliance with international trade rules and regulations, in particular the WTO agreement, through the establishment or strengthening of national and regional support infrastructures for improvement of quality and delivery along the lines of international good practice of support services in standardization, conformity assessment and accreditation.
Concerning the need to address imported food, DoSTIE, according to the SoS, had requested CODEX and SPS committee to draft national standard for fats and oil, for implementation this year."These have already been reviewed and will be gazetted soon. My department of state also intends to set up a national standard bureau, and work in this regards , " he stated.
Author: by Sheriff Janko
See Also - See Also