CCC to work with SIS to promote trade through standardisation
The South Asia and South-East Asia regions (SESA) program supports
eight countries in the South Asia and South-East Asia region including
Sri Lanka to strengthen institutional capacity and their National
Standard Bodies (NSBs) for increased participation in national and
international standard development and strengthening the involvement of
private sector companies in standardisation.
It is funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation
Agency (SIDA) and the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) is responsible
for the overall management.
Over the past years, the flow of investment and trade have increased
sharply in the world.
The development is influenced by multilateral and bilateral trade
agreements. But increasingly with competition, the buyer demands the
seller follow a universally accepted guidelines, to assure satisfactory
quality management and environment-friendly guideline.
Therefore, active and sustainable participation of the private and
public sectors is vital as they have the necessary technical capacity
and expertise to develop international standards which in turn
contributes to economic development in the region.
Small-time local producers to multinational organisations will
benefit from increased access to global markets.
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), the premier business chamber in
Sri Lanka, has an important role, linking the program and its activities
to various stakeholders (NSB, private sector companies, NGOs,
universities and governmental bodies) that are or will be users of the
ISO standards in the future.
The CCC will work closely with the Sri Lanka Standards Institution
(SLSI) in implementing the national work plan under the SESA program.
Long term sustainability of the results and institutionalisation of
implemented activities in a transparent manner, in the South Asian
region will be supported through the program coordinator based at the
Chamber.
An SESA workshop and training of program organised by SIS with SLSI
and CCC took place in July at the Cinnamon Lakeside. Over 40 officials
and experts of NSB's and private organisations and NGO's representing
all eight countries in the region were present.
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