Maravi

Government embarks on quality control project

Government embarks on quality control project
By Agness Changala
Thursday January 10, 2008 [03:00]

THE government will next month launch a project to improve the quality of goods and services in the country to meet international standards. Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry director of foreign trade Dorothy Tembo yesterday said funding and technical assistance from various cooperating partners had been sought.

“We are receiving support from European Union Development Fund (EUDF) and from United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) to embark on this project that will help to improve the quality of goods and services in order to meet international standards,” she said.

Tembo said the ministry was also working hand-in-hand with the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) to help it purchase equipment needed to do their assessment programme for the quality of goods in as far as meeting the international standards was concerned.

She expressed happiness at the progress the country had made so far in meeting international standards for the goods the country was already exporting.

“I must say I’m happy because we are meeting the required standards for the goods being exported so far,” Tembo said.

She said trade in Zambia was doing well but the cost of doing business was very high due to the country’s landlocked nature.

Tembo said this was hampering business because it took a long time to move trucks from one point to the other.

“You may find that because of the route being lengthy and complicated, the driver has to take a lot of days away from the family and this requires that these people are paid some allowances which are costly on our part because the more one delays the more money we pay them,” she said.

Tembo said the situation was slowly being addressed to ensure that little time was spent on transportation.

“Because of these problems, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Zambia and Zimbabwe called One Stop Border Post (OSBP) which will allow for quick clearance on the boarders,” said Tembo.

Labels: QUALITY ASSURANCE

posted by MrK @ 3:50 PM