Quality is believed to play a crucial role in the competitiveness of a country’s export products and the safety of its domestic products. Institutions such as International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have been established at the international level to ensure quality. Some countries have established quality assurance institutions.
Quality assurance standards should be based on international standards using technology and science and should be comparable to those of other countries in the world. If domestic and imported products maintain their quality and prioritize the safety of society, they will be desirable by the manufacturer, exporter, and consumer.
The investor also wants to offer quality products to the market in order not to go bankrupt. The community also prefers to obtain quality products to avoid health and various problems caused by using substandard products.
It is observed that countries are constantly improving and implementing their quality standards. Ethiopia has also been establishing institutions working on quality. Recently, a new quality village was introduced in the presence of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD).
At the same forum, Minister of Trade and Regional Integration, Kassahun Gofe (phd) stated that the quality village is located on 7.2 hectares of land and includes 20 buildings. Total construction cost was about 8.2 billion Birr.
According to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed; the quality village is called National Quality Infrastructure at the international level, and it is not merely infrastructure but also quality infrastructure. Thousands of young professionals work in the quality village. In particular, food, clothing, construction materials such as cement, steel, glass, tin, as well as health-related equipment are repaired; their quality is also tested.
Coffee, sesame, honey, all kinds of food products exported are tested in the facility and ensured that they are of international standard. Imports are also tested in the quality village before they enter the domestic market. Clothing, food and health are very important issues for humanity. Health problems can occur due to small contamination, chemicals; so that they are tested.
“This infrastructure is a big asset in Ethiopia, and there are few countries in Africa that have such infrastructure,” the Prime Minister said, adding that countries without quality infrastructure cannot ensure sustainable development.
He said that the basis of growth is export capacity. Countries need such an institution to export. It is more important than building defense, police or wide roads. When the institution is fully operational, trade will grow; and imports will be of high quality. The country will not be a place where low-quality products produced in the world market are dumped. The institution will make it a country that accepts the best and exports quality products.
According to the Prime Minister, the first experience was taken from South Africa, which has a quality infrastructure institution called CSR. It is a lot of hard work for Ethiopia to have a similar institution by learning from the experience of the South African institution, which has nearly 30 years of experience. Now it has become fruitful, the equipment has been imported, the professionals have been trained and it will create capabilities that can fully make Ethiopia’s export trade competitive. Any foreign institutions that do similar work will be willing to use these laboratories because they know the standards of these laboratories.
He also mentioned that products that have obtained quality certificates from this place in the country will be easily accepted in the international market. Such institutions are not established in few months’ period, but require three or four years; they require preparation and resources.
There are more than 20 buildings on the campus, and it is one of the institutions that have achieved results in the past few years. He also stated that it is a very important institution that occupies the first place among the national institutions that the nation built so far.
Constantine Berhatesfa (PhD), an economic consultant, served as a policy consultant at the United Nations in New York and is currently serving as a lecturer in the management of humanitarian organizations pointed out that the quality of factory products imported by Ethiopia should be properly tested before they cause health or other problems to the community.
“First of all, all the goods imported by our country, including medicines, electronic goods, food products, and clothing, should be known and evaluated,” he said. Therefore, the establishment of the Quality Village is of great importance to the country’s economy.
According to him, the establishment of the Quality Village, which is a response to the quality issues in the country, will be of great importance in solving the social problems associated with quality in various sectors. It is one of the government’s regulatory tasks in addition to protecting the country and the people.
He believes that the establishment of quality control centers will not only benefit the export trade, but also allow for the establishment of standards for products used by the community, thereby preventing products that could harm the community from reaching the market.
Not only will they have their own laboratories, but they will also be able to conduct research by taking samples from the market. This will be of great importance for government capacity building. At the international level, any product manufactured by factories will be given the ISO international quality certification and exported.
He recalled that there are requirements that European and other governments require from companies that export; and indicated that the requirements are related to the environment, chemical content and child labor. ”Most of the goods we export are raw. If they are exported with value added, including coffee, sesame and other products, it will support the economy better,” he said.
Dr. Constantine mentioned that if sesame is converted into oil and exported, its price will increase many times. It will save foreign currency by eliminating the need for imported oil. Therefore, the establishment of the quality village will create a favorable environment for this to happen.
Industrial parks are corporations that can produce goods with value added chain that can be exported. These companies, especially when operating in areas called free economic zones, are allowed to produce and export goods with international quality standards. They are also given many opportunities by the government. They have many advantages in terms of licensing. Efforts are being made to convert all industrial parks into economic zones since it is a viable way as the renowned economic zones, such as China, the United Arab Emirates, and Singapore, have developed at a high level in such a way.
Emiru Ayalew, founder and manager of a private company known as ‘Emiru Ayalew Import Export’, said that quality is the source of everything. His company exports soybeans, sesame, and nuts, and imports cars and machinery, tires, industrial raw materials, and chemicals.
Emiru mentioned that the establishment of the Quality Village will make the business of both importers and exporters smoother, because when poor-quality goods are shipped; there will be a loss of customers. The buyer may cancel the sale completely and incur unnecessary expenses, and he emphasized that the establishment of the Quality Village with quality as the center is crucial for both the country and the trader.
“Previously, there were quality certificates that we used to submit for export; when we import, quality-based assessments are also made,” he said, but they were not as strong and reliable. He recalled that there were institutions that claimed to ensure quality on an individual basis, and these institutions have a wider opportunity to obtain certification through simple negotiations.
He said that the establishment of the quality village has technological support, and that since it is under government control, it is not possible to import low-quality goods from abroad.
He stated that the existence of the quality village will facilitate the export of quality goods and the import of quality goods into the country, and that the use of better technology in the quality village will create better trust among foreign customers.
It creates more trust in the goods that are exported. Customers will pay better when they are sure that they will receive quality goods, and sometimes it allows them to get additional payment.
He pointed out that if the goods sold are found to be of poor quality and are received at an additional price, they can be blacklisted in the future, but if the quality village implements technology and is managed by better human resources, the quality issue will improve significantly.
The technologies will serve both the importer and the exporter. It is appropriate to assign an expert in charge of the technology in the place, he emphasized.
BY BACHA ZEWDIE
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD TUESDAY 10 DECEMBER 2024
