CATEGORY:SPECIAL OBSERVANCE
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By L. Simeon Collins (Director, Grenada Bureau of Standards)



“Standards: big benefits for small business” is the theme of World Standards Day to be celebrated in Grenada on Friday October 13, 2006.

This theme was chosen by the leaders of the world’s three principal organizations responsible for developing international standards, i.e. the International Organization for Standards (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), in order to underline the fact that “international standards have facilitated economic developments and the dissemination of technologies that empower small business as much as their larger counterparts.”

Standards cover areas as diverse as getting food from farms to kitchen tables; raw materials to processing plants and to industrial users; products to distributors and shops and on to consumers; power from generating plants to industry and the home; messages that pass between telecommunication networks and computer systems. Clearly in all of these areas small business can benefit as much as big business.

Additionally, there are standards for products that add value to a growing number of the services provided by small businesses. Small businesses have at their disposal management systems and conformity assessment standards which can help to establish them as reliable suppliers and business partners, to satisfy regulations or to qualify for procurement tendering.

The aim of World Standards Day is to raise awareness of the importance of standards to the economy and to promote its role in helping meet the needs of business, industry, government and consumers worldwide. It is also a means of paying tribute to the efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who develop standards nationally, regionally and internationally.

This year, World Standards Day, will be celebrated in Grenada with an Awards Ceremony and Symposium to be held at the Conference Room of the Grenada Bureau of Standards on Friday October 13, 2006. At that ceremony, small business owners and other persons who have participated in the development, promotion and utilization of national standards to improve the quality of products and services offered locally, would be recognized.