‘SQAM project to boost exports’
Development of internationally accepted systems of testing and inspecting products locally is fundamental in meeting government’s strategy of turning Malawi into an exporting and producing country.
Principal Secretary II in the Ministry of Industry and Trade Alex Gomani said this last week in Blantyre during a consultative meeting with the industry aimed at keeping them abreast on the standardisation, quality assurance, accreditation and metrology (Sqam) project currently underway in the country.
The Sqam project, which involves the development of a robust Sqam infrastructure in Malawi, is meant to enhance the ability to export Malawi’s goods by reducing the need for re-testing, re-inspection, re-certification abroad through acceptance of measurements, tests, conformity assessment results issued in Malawi.
“What has been happening is that some of our products could not get into markets as such as EU [European Union] and US [United States] because they could not recognise certification from Malawi Bureau of Standards (MBS).
“MBS, more generally, has limited infrastructure to meet demands for the provision of standardisation, quality assurance, accreditation and metrology (Sqam) services within Malawi,” he said.
Gomani added that as a result, certificates from MBS could only be accepted in the region, a few other countries in Africa and outside and exporters, in the process, incurred huge costs to obtain certification overseas.
MBS director general Davlin Chokazinga said successful completion of the project shall mean that Malawi’s conforming assessment shall be at par with the rest of the world and, therefore, tested once in Malawi, accepted everywhere.
This, he added, will see local industries easily accessing world class conformity procedures and cheap services paid in local currency.
“The benefit is that our local products and services will not just be competitive on the international market in terms of pricing and quality. They will also save foreign exchange as all conformity assessment shall be in internalised,” he said.
The project, jointly funded by the European Union (EU), the United Nations Development Programme (Undp) and the Malawi Government, started in September 2012 and it is expected to finish by September 2016.
