CATEGORY:NEWS RELEASE --------------------------- INSIDE GRENADA THURSDAY December 06, 2007 From Grenada Bureau of Standards The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Economic Development and Planning, Mr. Mike Sylvester recently reiterated the government’s commitment to improving the national quality infrastructure in an effort to achieve Export Quality Assurance. He made this statement in his address at the opening ceremony of a two (2) day training workshop for exporters in implementing and documenting an ISO 9001: Quality Management System. The workshop, which was organized by the Grenada Bureau of Standards and funded by the Organisation of American States (OAS) ran from Thursday November 29 to Friday November 30, with 25 participants from 20 companies. “The timeliness and relevance of this workshop to exporters and economy building cannot be overemphasized,” the Permanent Secretary said, especially in the context of the changing face of global trade, consumerism and the Caribbean Single Market and Economy. It is expected that the workshop will help to set the foundation for a national quality infrastructure and ensure that the export community is fully compliant with standards in the international marketplace. “This”, he said, “is a very important initiative towards achieving Export Quality Assurance as outlined in the National Export Strategy (NES).” In his address, Dr. Guido Marcelle, Chairman of the Standards Council of the Grenada Bureau of Standards also emphasised the importance and necessity of a quality management system in ensuring sustainability of trade and competitiveness. “This is not a Grenada prerequisite but a world wide requirement that is becoming more and more important,” he said. He went on to advise the participants that “sustainability is a key to successful development and in order to sustain quality trade in the current world environment a good quality management system is absolutely essential.” This workshop was the first in a series of four workshops in support of the National Export Strategy which was finalized by the Ministry of Economic Development and Planning earlier this year. The other three workshops which will be done during the first quarter of 2008 will be on Measuring Customer Loyalty, Market Entry Requirements and HACCP. Mr. Simeon Collins, Director of the Grenada Bureau of Standards said, “All these workshops are targeted at exporters and aspiring exporters with the intention of assisting them to meet the quality requirements of the importing country and to develop strategies for entry into new markets.” The workshop was conducted by Mr. Selwyn Medina, Certified Trainer/Facilitator for Quality Management Systems attached to Premier Quality Services Limited, the training and consultancy subsidiary of the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards.