The Ministry of Trade and Industry Tuesday organized a stakeholder’s forum on standardization and technical regulations to promote awareness of technical regulatory framework vis-à-vis administrative procedures and technical requirements

The objectives of the forum was to streamline the development and application of Technical Regulations as part of the National Quality Infrastructure and also to inform and update Ministries, Departments, Agencies and the private sector on developments in the National and Regional Quality Infrastructure.

Mr Ibrahim Mohammed Murtala, a Deputy Minister in-charge of Trade, said the National Quality Infrastructure is the totality of institutional framework, public or private, which has been established to implement standards development and adoption in areas such as calibration, verification and inspection services for weight.

He said an appropriate national quality infrastructure could play a significant role in enabling developing countries to improve on their domestic markets, ensuring customer safety and promoting rural development through various quality infrastructure services.

Mr Murtala noted that quality infrastructure could play an important role in innovations in industry and agriculture.

The Deputy Minister said the national quality infrastructure constituted a whole network of actors rather than a single institution and that there was the need to improve on coordination between the various national and international authorities.

He expressed the hope that stronger collaboration would be established between ministries, departments, agencies, the private sector and public quality institutions such as the Ghana Standards Authority, Plant Protection and Regulatory Services under the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and other institutions.