The Ministry of Industrialisation and Trade is at an advanced stage in securing aid from development partners to the amount of N.dollars 27 million to assist with the implementation of the Revised Quality Policy.

Speaking here on Thursday while inaugurating the core group that will be responsible for implementing the Revised Quality Policy (RQP) 2020-2025, Minister of Industrialisation and Trade Lucia Iipumbu said the main objective of the RQP is to improve the business environment and the quality of products and services, with the aim of increasing both domestic and foreign investor confidence.

The policy is also aimed at supporting the Namibian Standards Institution (NSI) and key ministries in dealing with technical regulations to consolidate their related infrastructure in order to conform to international requirements.

The minister added that businesses on the international market require goods and services that are of a high quality and that meet recognised standards.

“With the implementation of our revised national quality policy, we believe that we will see more Namibian products and services meeting international standards and traded in the domestic and international markets,” she said.

Iipumbu said with regards to the implementation of the quality policy, her ministry is tasked with ensuring that products traded and manufactured by local enterprises are in compliance with the set standards under the ‘Growth at Home’ strategy. All imports should also be subjected to quality compliance tests in order to reduce sub-standard products entering the Namibian market.

The ministry launched the revised national quality policy in April this year and the core group is made up of senior government officials representing ministries involved in technical regulation of the quality policy.

“The core group is established with the objective of leading the institutional and legal modernisation of the national quality infrastructure so that the concerned bodies provide competent and essential support and services to industries, the government and all other stakeholders, in line with international best practices and norms,” said Iipumbu.

She further said the core group is expected to monitor and oversee the implementation plans on a regular basis until the successful implementation of the policy, and is further required to develop a progress report every six months through her office, which will be relayed to Cabinet.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency