Minister of Trade and Industry Mandisi Mpahlwa's welcoming address at the 23rd Southern African Development Community (SADC) Standards, Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM) meeting

Dear SADC dignitaries, SADC SQAM participants, international and local guests. It is a privilege to welcome you at this, the 23rd meeting of Southern African Development Community (SADC) Standards, Quality Assurance, Accreditation and Metrology (SQAM) in Cape Town, South Africa.

It is said that we cannot change the past, but we have an influence on what we do now and most certainly, what we do now can fundamentally influence the future.

Consider that the rapid changes in world trade that took place in the 1980s and 1990s as barriers to the free flow of goods, services and capital were reduced is responsible for the global economy of today. For Africa, this process of globalisation has brought many benefits but all of us are also well aware that in many instances globalisation has brought less benefits for our continent than has been the case for many others. Why is this the case?

Certainly, over the last two decades, SADC and countries elsewhere in Africa have been repositioning their economies for sustainable growth over the last two decades. And we have seen the outcomes; economic growth has increased steadily in most instances and rapidly in others. Africa also has enormous advantages in terms of resources and its people can be found throughout the world occupying every category of job possible. Yet, paradoxically, 33 of the worlds least developed countries as classified by the United Nations (UN) are found in Africa and the Sub-Saharan Africa region experienced probably the slowest growth of any region in the world in the last decade.

An honest assessment therefore will teach us that we are not yet fulfilling our promise. In fact, an honest assessment will tell us that to solve the paradox will require that we systematically and coherently confront our weaknesses, many of which emanate from a difficult past, but which we now have the opportunity to change and in so doing, build a better future for all our peoples.

Ladies and gentlemen, this great task of systematically and coherently, developing the economy of SADC cannot be the realm of governments alone. It will require a special effort from everyone and all of us will have to assume significant responsibility. And I believe that the professionals that are here today working in the fields of standards, quality assurance, accreditation and metrology will indeed have a significant influence on shaping future intra-Africa and international trade.

In this regard, I think, we have during the last decade begun to build a strong foundation for the future. Already, many of Africa's enterprises had to rise to the challenge of complying with international standards and technical regulations and competing on a global scale and are now successfully exporting goods around the world. These enterprises are exporting in spite of the relatively higher costs of doing business, which means our entrepreneurs often have to do more with less than their international counterparts to create jobs and boost economic growth. Here again, the future looks bright considering the tremendous efforts now being made to further develop infrastructure in SADC.

Of particular interest for this conference is the fact that it is a non-negotiable that for SADC enterprises to fully take advantage of these developments to grow global trade; these enterprises must develop the capacity to make certain that they are able to comply with international standards and technical regulations. In turn, the capacity to export needs to be supported by careful investment by government in technical infrastructure based on needs analysis and economic appraisal.

Currently, as countries that comprise the South African Development Community, our challenge is to improve our overall capacity to meet quality standards as well as the safety and environmental technical regulations that are required in global markets. It is also simply not good enough that we continue to have insufficient resources to do important tasks such as the verification of compliance with international standards and technical regulations or stressed inspection capacity so that we can ensure that exports meet all the technical requirements on selected products. It is not good enough because the current weak capacity in these areas and its continuation in to the future will act as a constraint to export success. We cannot allow this to happen as it will undo all the good work being done to stimulate industry and the lower the cost of doing business in SADC.

In the interim, because of these difficulties, ladies and gentlemen, it is my view that SADC will in the short term, continue to be standards-takers, in our attempt to meet international standards, even when these standards are imposed on us not taking into consideration that they may impose an unduly onerous burden. In the medium to long term it would therefore be critical for SADC countries to increasingly influence relevant international standardisation and associated negotiations to ensure that the standards reflect unique African needs and support African development. I think it is important to be very clear on this matter. We are not proposing a lowering of standards, especially as they relate to the safety of our citizens and the protection of our environment. This will require scientific and technical input supported by a clear and collective articulation of our concerns and presentation of alternative solutions. It is therefore indeed most encouraging to note that many of you present today have begun making inroads in this regard through your increased regional participation in the various international fora.

Honoured guests, another reality that we in SADC must accept is that technical regulations are increasing. Although the initial focus of the technical regulations of developed countries were primarily on health and safety of the public- and these regulations are now well integrated in the day to day economic functioning of these economies-, the focus is now shifting to environmental protection and labour standards. Consequentially, for us this means that compliance with international standards and technical regulations is therefore becoming increasingly complex. These new requirements necessitate investment in skilled human resources, new product design, new or upgraded equipment, management systems, labelling, traceability and record systems.

Thus, clearly, establishing and maintaining SADC standards, metrology and accreditation infrastructure and investing in human capital as well as improving testing laboratories and certification facilities is increasingly important and urgent. But I think it would be wrong of anyone to believe that we are facing an overwhelming challenge. Such a view would be incorrect, even as we may have some ground to make up, but there is absolutely no reason that can prevent us from achieving our objectives in this regard.

The evidence that we can present for instance, as we note the initiative of the SADC SQAM Expert Group to actively work towards solutions to the specific problems they have to confront. This has developed well beyond the planning phase as already, the SADC Accreditation System has been established. This system now allows for the provision of accreditation services to conformity assessment bodies that do testing, certification and inspection for manufacturers in countries that do not have national accreditation services. A positive development is that the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and International Accreditation Forum (IAF) have indicated their support for this approach, so we need to move quickly to further operationalise the system and to entrench international recognition.

I am also pleased to have been advised that an additional initiative that is making good progress is the establishment of the Africa Co-operation in Metrology (AFRIMETS) in support of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad). AFRIMETS aims to create an African wide network for measurement and legal metrology that will complement the myriad other Nepad initiatives. It is clear that although it is still relatively early days to measure the true outcomes of Nepad, it is absolutely clear that this initiative has already had a profound impact on development in Africa.

Therefore, in as much the SADC Co-operation in Metrology (SADCMET) and SADC Co-operation in Legal Metrology (SADCMEL) bodies have taken a leading role in this regard, I urge you to continue your hard work and in fact to re-double your efforts as the importance of your work cannot be understated.

Ladies and gentlemen, for the benefit of those members of the audience who may not yet be aware of the recent work to develop a SADC Industrial Upgrading and Modernisation Programme, it is important that I bring it to your attention. This programme has been initiated to benefit SADC member countries by promoting economic, industrial and trade growth and socio-economic integration To facilitate this growth and integration, a number of priority industrial sectors in the SADC region have been identified including Agro-food processing, mineral beneficiation and pharmaceuticals and chemicals. I said it is important to bring this matter to the attention of this audience because we will not fully succeed in implementing the industrial upgrading and modernisation program without standards, metrology and accreditation services. It is therefore an ideal opportunity for the SADC SQAM expert group to be proactive in establishing the relevant technical support.

Honoured guests, I have spoken at length concerning the positive initiatives as it is our privilege to be experiencing and leading these developments to the benefit of our people. But my views are also based on our experience here where the appropriate technical infrastructure has had an extremely valuable role to play in underpinning the ability of our country to improve its productive capacity. In this regard South Africa is busy with a process to modernise its South African technical infrastructure with a view to meet both national and international demands for a system that is internationally on par with that of its peers and to provide support to South Africa's industrial upgrading processes, whilst improving the protection of health and safety of South Africa's population. This process was started as far back as 2 000 when we benchmarked our system internationally.

This resulted in the finalisation of the Accreditation for Conformity Assessment Calibration and Good Laboratory Practice, and the National Measurement Standards and Measurement Units Acts in 2007. With these Acts both the South African National Accreditation System and the National Metrology Institute of South Africa were established as public entities.

The legislative reform of the South African technical infrastructure (TI) will be completed in 2008 with the finalisation of the Standards Bill and the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications (NRCS) Bill. The first bill will reconstitute the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) as the peak standards body of South Africa responsible for standards development and provision of conformity assessment services. The NRCS bill will transfer the administration of compulsory specifications from the SABS to the National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications. In fact, the Department of Trade and Industry (dti) is now embarking on a campaign to raise the profile of the technical infrastructure in order for more people to understand the benefits of the activities that you will be discussing during the course of this week.

Finally, I think it is also important that I use this opportunity to advise you that at the SADC ministerial meetings I attend, this area of work is often under discussion. Issues such as the Annex on Technical Barriers to Trade or the SADC Trade Protocol, amongst others, are dealt with very seriously and with the full knowledge that these are the steps we are putting in place now to ensure a better future. In this regard, the proposed legislator's forum will certainly assist in raising awareness and increasing the usage of technical infrastructure services as effective tools in the development of our economies. So, in fulfilling this big task we will require support and assistance such as the project funded by the European Union (EU), but ultimately it will be the strength of our commitment that will be the deciding factor.

I must therefore thank you for you hard work which I am aware, due to its complex technical nature is not always fully appreciated by society. Good luck with your deliberations and may SADC SQAM go from strength to strength!

Issued by: Department of Trade and Industry
7 May 2008