Work to improve management systems - BOBS

MARTIN NYIRENDA | Tuesday May 19, 2009 00:00

The Botswana Bureau of Standards (BOBS) contends that business processes should adhere to specific standards to make locally produced goods and services marketable in the region and that the mechanics to monitor the processes must be strengthened.

Speaking in Tsabong at an event to mark the World Meteorology Day activities, BOBS Manager responsible for Trade Meteorology, Ditlhake Tau, said local industry players must embrace a sound measurement system because it is fundamental to the production and delivery of high quality goods and services.

Tau said fair trade cannot be achieved with a poor measuring system and that the protection of consumers and consumer confidence in domestic and international arenas would be significantly eroded.

He said the role of international meteorology is to maintain consistency in world measurements at the highest levels and work towards consistency in national structures as well as provide a technical basis for product specifications and national and international legislations, among others.

Tau pointed out that embracing accurate measurements provides the framework in which manufacturers could demonstrate compliance with specifications within an internationally harmonised system. 'Measurement ensures accuracy of the product being measured, increases customer confidence on commodities sold by weight or measure, assists patients to receive correct doses and ensures fair competition between traders,' he said.

The Manager of the Tsabong branch of the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA), Martha Keikanetswe, said ever since time began, man has always been involved in trade because it raises living standards and fosters wealth creation.

She said trade is essential to economic stability and growth as well as to alleviating poverty. 'We do not need to look far to see how the financial crisis has led to a decrease of confidence in companies of all sorts, resulting in national revenues falling, and a predicted downturn in world trade of some nine percent in 2009,' Keikanetswe said.

She pointed out that the World Trade Organisation (WTO) recognises the importance of standards, particularly in the face of Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) caused by non-equivalence of measurement standards.

There must be some way to show that measurements made in one country are equivalent to those in another: 'If not, goods are rejected, trade is impossible, living standards fall, and consumers are denied trust in, and access to, the goods they want,' said Keikanetswe.

Trade and the national commitment to industrial competitiveness are beneficial as they stimulate competitive products and incorporate good measurement practice. Better measurement stimulates innovation through an ability to make new or higher quality products, invariably opening up new markets.

More than that, opening trading areas also opens markets for some companies and enterprises which were previously disadvantaged by small domestic markets such as that of Botswana. BOBS, in league with LEA, intends to assist in the development of quality infrastructures such as better measurement system within the local enterprises.

The Manager of the Kanye branch of LEA, Segakolodi Ntebele, said it is cardinal to realise that because of vigorous competition at every level of commerce, the SADC region is now an open free trade area. Ntebele said one important element of measurement in commerce is that it almost always requires partnership between stakeholders. 'Within the last decade, we are starting to see some of the downsides of an all-consuming commitment to industrial growth and to higher volumes of traded products,' she said.

Measurement laboratories can construct better models and help us understand what we can do to reduce our negative effects on the planet.'