BY SHARON AUSTIN | APR 24, 2023
Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, greets President of COPANT, Mauricio Céspedes, at the official opening of the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT) Annual General Assembly, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, today. Looking on is acting Director of Barbados National Standards Institution, Hadyn Rhynd. (GP)
Barbados will be launching a National Quality Policy.
Minister of Energy and Business, Senator Lisa Cummins, shared this news today as she delivered remarks at the official opening of the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT) Annual General Assembly, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
Senator Cummins underscored the importance of Barbadian businesses competing on quality. She explained that many local businesses are in the micro, small and medium-sized enterprises realm, and therefore scale is a challenge.
“If you are not able to compete on volume, you are oftentimes not able to compete on price, but you have to be able to compete on quality. You have…to make sure that that quality product is not just subjectively supported by the consumer because it looks good but that it delivers on the expected promise, in terms of performance.
“And it is on that basis that we are connecting consumer satisfaction, the development of quality products, investments in the small, micro and medium-sized enterprises with the launch of a National Quality Policy…, led by the Barbados National Standards Institution. The Barbados National Quality Policy is expected to develop a range of standards, all … across the business community, and it is my expectation that with it, we will see stronger businesses and stronger products built on quality,” the Minister told her in-person and online audience.
She said during the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations in the region and throughout the world collaborated to find solutions to common problems. She added that she would like to see countries in CARICOM and the Americas pooling their resources, and she challenged them to do so.
She asked why Barbados and countries across CARICOM could not use the mechanisms already enshrined within the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas for production integration to scale production across businesses and sectors based on quality.
Senator Cummins continued: “But if we are functioning on a regional basis and we’re functioning on the basis of quality collaboration, then we change the paradigm…. I would love…to see many of the small businesses that are struggling to achieve scale, but have in fact benefited from your national standards institutions and are producing quality products, … be able to benefit from pooled resources.”
The Minister told her audience that the Barbados National Energy Policy was being revised and would be overlaid with a national energy investment policy.
She proffered the view that there was an opportunity for officials to develop standards-based service level agreements across the renewable energy sectors, and indicated that the Barbados National Standards Institution had already commenced the work.
The COPANT meeting is being held in Barbados from April 23 to 26.
