ADDIS ABABA-Ministry of Trade and Industry said it is committed to improve quality assurance services to meet quality specification of global market in targeted sectors.
During a national quality infrastructure development project workshop on Tuesday, Minister of Trade and Industry, Fetlework Gebregziabher said that the ministry is committed to improve quality assurance services especially in textile; leather and agro processing sectors to enable firms produce goods and services that meet quality specification in the international market.
The government has given strategic empha – sis to the growth of light manufacturing industries to produce exportable products that meet international standards. However, lack of adequate national quality infrastructure severely affected the ability of Ethiopian firms to produce goods and services that meet the quality specification of global market, she added. The services delivery capacity of the existing National quality Infrastructure (NQI) institutions is insufficient to support the competitiveness of manufacturing industry, she pointed out.
“NQI institutions also have limited interna – tionally recognized services. This identified as one of the key bottlenecks for supporting the competitiveness of exporters. There is no conducive environment created that encourages private sector investment in the area of quality infrastructure to create market oriented conformity assessment.” Ethiopia has reached a 50 million USD deal with the World Bank Group for the execution of the project.
“The improvement of the national quality infrastructure is fundamental and critical as Ethiopia moves towards improving its export of manufacturing industry. And Ethiopia also made commitments to join World Trade Organization (WTO) and proceed with implementation of Africa Free Trade Agreement,” said Natalya Mylenko, Country Representative of World Bank Group.
The Ethiopian Herald, December 20/2018
BY TSEGAYE TILAHUN
