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Contact:
Chris Satney
Monday, March 14, 2005 - Director of Commerce, Titus Preville has urged
local businesses to align themselves with the various local organizations or
bodies established to provide the necessary support in preparation for the
establishment of the Caribbean Single Market an Economy (CSME).
Mr. Preville made the call at the opening of an International Organization for
Standardization (ISO) seminar for local businesses on Monday, March 14, 2005 at
the Cara Suites Hotel. The initiative, spearheaded by the office of the Prime
Minister is one in a series of activities organized for the business community
under the theme ‘Protect and Position Your Business for CSME’.
Addressing the participants, Mr. Preville said businesses within the services
sector had been able to organize themselves under the newly formed National
Coalition of Services Industries, and advised others within the private sector
to follow suit.
“It is only when you have yourselves form into some sought of association that
you can begin to define some of the issues that face you. You can begin to
define some of the rules and regulations that ought to govern business in that
particular sector. The thing with competition is that, there is nothing wrong
with competition but all competition must be regulated with certain rule and
guidelines that govern competition. Without those guidelines then anything goes
and that is a recipe for chaos”, Mr. Preville said.
While the CSME will provides opportunities for the expansion of markets,
especially in the services sector, the Commerce Director warned that there were
still common weaknesses that might compromise the island’s ability to take
advantage of these opportunities.
Cabinet Secretary, Dr. James Fletcher, who also addressed the participants, said
government under the CSME would no longer be able to provide protection from
market forces and competition. He urged the local private sector persons to make
full use of the opportunities being made available that would help strengthen
their competitive edge.
“If we do not know the rule of the game and understand the modes of engagement
then we will not be able to play in the arena. It is that simple. This initial
seminar focuses on the implementation of two specific ISO standards – the ISO
9001 series and ISO 15489, and addresses the various processes needed to
consistently and systematically deliver high quality products and service to
customers, and consequently, improve competitiveness at both the micro-economic
and macro-economic levels”, Dr. Fletcher said.
ISO is a series of international standards developed by quality experts from
around the world for use by companies that either want to implement their own
in-house quality systems or to ensure that suppliers have appropriate quality
systems in place.
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