Standardization as a Pillar of the National Quality Infrastructure
Export Development Council (EDC)
posted February 16, 2016
The establishment of a National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) is one of the strategies under the Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2015-2017. ?NQI focuses on Standardization, Metrology Testing, Certification and Accreditation as a national tool for trade facilitation, industry competitiveness, best regulatory practices and consumer protection?, says Director Ann Claire Cabochan of the Bureau of Philippine Standards.
BPS will play a crucial role on this as it is mandated to be the National Standards Body of the Philippines to develop, promulgate, implement and coordinate standardization activities of the country. As the National Standards Body, BPS formulates Philippine National Standards (PNS) and ensures that the PNS adheres to International Standards such as ISO 9000 (Quality Management), ISO 14000 (Environmental Management), ISO 500001 (Energy Management) to name a few.
Dir. Cabochan added that the BPS is a signatory to the World Trade Organization -Technical Barrier to Trade (WTO-TBT) agreement. As a member of the WTO-TBT, the BPS ensures that our SMEs are protected through standards, technical regulation, conformity assessment procedures (testing, calibration, inspection and certification), packaging and labeling.
The BPS continues to develop standards that will serve as springboard to quality, safety and efficient and optimized use of resources resulting to production of lower cost of goods for the MSMEs in the country.