Kingstown, St. Vincent and the Grenadines – The St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) Bureau of Standards, in collaboration with the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), has launched a one-week workshop on Quality Management Systems. This training, funded by €4.5 million under the 11th European Development Fund (EDF) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Programme, aims to bolster the competitiveness of stakeholders in various sectors.
Delivering the keynote address at the opening ceremony held at the La Vue Hotel Conference Centre, Minister of Agriculture Hon. Saboto Caesar, who is responsible for the Bureau of Standards, emphasized the importance of the workshop. “The workshop aims to ensure that stakeholders increase their competitiveness,” Caesar said. He noted the critical challenge of meeting local, regional, and international standards, particularly in agriculture.
Ezra Ledger, Executive Director of the Bureau of Standards, echoed these sentiments. “Globalization has challenged traditional producers to reflect on quality,” Ledger stated. He underscored the workshop’s objective to train and raise awareness among stakeholders in both the public and private sectors, thereby enhancing their competitiveness. Ledger also highlighted the Bureau’s plans to introduce a certified quality management system within the next two years, which he believes will serve as a “badge of competence and confidence in their service delivery.”
Dr. Sheryl Anderson, Consultant of Quality Systems, Solutions and Initiatives, is leading the training. Dr. Anderson expressed her enthusiasm about the program, stating, “We just don’t want to take Quality Management Systems from a theoretical point of view but from the applicability and the implementable point of view, and this is the design of training.” She emphasized the workshop’s focus on developing policies and procedures, technical specifications of product and service quality, understanding the differences between quality control and quality assurance, managing risks to achieve objectives, and conducting gap assessments for international certification.
The workshop is expected to bring significant advancements in quality management, fostering investment in quality capacity and the implementation of robust quality management systems in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.