Dilemma of quality control

The federal government's decision to establish a National Certification Authority and to make compliance with ISO-17025 a mandatory requirement for electrical goods manufacturers is a step in the right direction, though taken rather late in the day.
The initiative has come at a time when our reputation in the world market for quality production is already badly bruised. However, the Engineering Development Board (EDB) has opened talks with Turkey to fulfil the condition for being affiliated to a world recognised certification body.
According to a Recorder Report quoting the EDB chief, as many as eight Pakistani electrical goods manufacturing companies have the requisite export potential, but the only hindrance in their way is the absence of a credible quality certification mechanism.
The EDB chairman has disclosed that Pakistani manufacturers are in fact being asked for a European level certification for their electrical goods. The plummeting manufacturing standards and absence of quality standardisation has not only jeopardised our export potential in this sector for which there is $300 million demand but it also accounts for 75 percent of the damage sustained by electrical appliances in the country due to low quality switches, for instance. There is a vast export potential for our products like energy meters, transformers, capacitors, and insulators in the world market, which can be tapped by observing international standards and pursuing a more focused and rigorous marketing strategy.
There have been numerous cases where foreign companies and importers rejected consignments dispatched by our exporters for failing to meet international manufacturing standards. In this era of globalise trade, the share of market access is contingent upon compliance with international manufacturing standards to which we have unfortunately paid inadequate heed. Viewed in retrospect, this has indeed been a very costly mistake, as the manufacturing industry is the second largest sector of Pakistan's economy in terms of both productivity and employment.
It has also been playing a pivotal role in Pakistan's external trade flows, with manufactured and semi-manufactured goods accounting for a fairly large percentage of our exports. Although the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has so far established over 21,000 standards (including 15,500 ISO standards) for agriculture, food, chemicals, civil and mechanical engineering, textiles etc the standardisation procedures may not have come up to the international standards, given our traditionally lax regulatory attitude. Secondly, the application of standards is often inconsistent in Pakistan, which has injected harmful element of bureaucratic discretion in the whole process.
Above all, inadequate or defective quality control has blunted our competitiveness in the world market, which has in turn made a big dent in our export sector, leading to a burgeoning trade deficit.
Quality control is not an abstract concept. It requires availability of modern infrastructure backed up by a work ethics that gives precedence to quality over quantity. It also demands the bridling of profit motive and the application of judicious state control that promotes, rather than hinders, the spirit of enterprise. Like in all other fields of national endeavour, there are no shortcuts to quality control.
It is a painstaking process that also requires enforcement of rule of law and good governance. Above all, it requires political will fired by nationalist zeal to set things right, for the progress and prosperity of the country. Lastly, the planned standardisation mechanism should not only be for electrical goods manufacturing, it should in fact cover all sectors of the economy.