Pakistan Standards & Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) like every year is observing the World Standards Day on 14th October, 2017 with a vision to raise awareness on the key aspects of standardization and promotion of quality culture by bringing in fundamental change in the thinking pattern of people of Pakistan. It's the time that quality should be reflected in each and every aspect of life, this cannot happen unless there is a shift in the old paradigm of compromise and status quo acceptance. PSQCA has planned different activities such as arrangement of Seminars, Conferences, Essay Competitions and Awards giving to Technical experts. It has further undertaken Awareness raising programs through print as well as Electronic Media to celebrate the Day in a comprehensive manner.
The management of PSQCA believes in the strengths of our youth and their wisdom that makes them better law abiding citizens and sound professionals in every walk of life. The PSQCA has announced the Essay Competition on the Quality related issues based upon this year's theme ie "Standards make cities smarter", at provincial level to attract the attention of youth. PSQCA has further signed MOUs with leading Universities of the country by focusing on the subject of quality for our youth to bring in fundamental change in the society in the coming years through a structured approach. Collaborative efforts of PSQCA with the Academia, Industry and the business community have provided the necessary confidence to believe that we are a progressive nation. This trusted partnership will play a significant role in development of the Pakistan's economy.
This year the World Standards Day is being celebrated with the theme "Standards make cities smarter", which reflects the importance of one of the toughest challenge that any government is facing. Development of Smart Cities calls for a comprehensively integrated approach to manage city's assets such as local government's information systems, schools, libraries, transportation systems, hospitals, power plants, water supply networks, waste management, law enforcement, and other community services. It calls for deployment of technology to improve the efficiency of services for a better quality of life.
Today's Smart City concept revolve around the use of latest ICT solutions, such as cloud base services, smart phones, smart meters, smart cards, networks of sensors and more accurate communication based on the semantic web. It has opened new ways to collective action and collaborative problem solving. Even a smart traffic management system requires a fool proof mechanism. Designing of a smart city starts from study of the community, their needs, applicable business practices and other attributes such as age of the citizens, educational level, hobbies etc. This then needs to be followed by development of a Policy that defines the roles, responsibilities, objective, and goals. A successful model further requires a holistic customized approach that accounts for city cultures, long-term city planning, and local regulations. Such a Holistic approach can only be attained through application of standards. Standards are a vehicle of communication for producers and users. They serve as a common language, defining quality and establishing safety criteria. Participating in Standardization helps reduce the economic risk of research and development activities; overall R&D costs are lowered by relying on previously standardized technologies.
In this context, the role of PSQCA is very crucial and its participation in initiation of such activities in Pakistan can generate essentially required motivation to develop a standard based approach towards establishment of smart cities concepts.
Sound technical standards benefit the user, as well as the manufacturer, by improving safety, bringing about economies in production, eliminating misunderstandings between manufacturer and purchaser, and assisting the purchasers in selecting and obtaining the proper product to meet their needs. In addition, the process of standardization allows manufacturers to come together to reach consensus on the best way to describe a product or system and their performance characteristics. Standardization and conformity assessment activities lead to lower costs by reducing redundancy, minimizing errors, and reducing time to market. Thus the formulation of globally harmonized international standards is the key to guide the local manufacturers to produce and deliver products compatible with universally acceptable norms.
The need for adherence to International standards cannot be overemphasized, this has never been as great as it is today. Industrial sector of Pakistan is shrinking, not being able to comprehensively compete globally on quality dimensions. Standardization is a key factor of trade policy which create opportunities for investors to do business in Pakistan using standards based management approach. It contributes to the removal of technical barriers to trade (ie, standards and conformity assessment), increases market access and international trade, and enhances cooperation at the international level. The use of standards can help Pakistani industry and SMEs to access global markets.
Standards often define the characteristics of a product or service and the way to measure or test them. Standards result in fairer competition hence price lowering for consumers and suitability of products for population and environment. They also drive compatibility between technologies and help users to compare and choose the best solution for living smarter.
The highly competitive world of today demands business processes to be based on a more quality conscious approach with adherence to well established standards for achieving sustainable economic growth in the country. It further helps the businesses gain sustainable access to the global market which is critical for survival in today's competitive economic environment. International Standards provide a quality reference point and a universal language for exchange of goods and services worldwide.
To serve the cause, PSQCA till date has adopted / developed 22,368 Standards. The compatibility of national standards with the international helps manufacturers understand the dynamics and needs of the global market to become more competitive. We must firmly establish our credentials as a country observing international quality standards for environmental protection and minimizing the wastage of scarce resources, and the PSQCA is playing its due role in this regard.
PSQCA has further improved its processes for providing ease of doing business in Pakistan. PSQCA has also embarked upon a comprehensive approach to Automate all its processes for provision of better services to its clients. PSQCA has also announced the Foreign Manufacturing License scheme, to facilitate the imports. All this has helped in attainment of enhanced confidence of the Business community.
Conformity assessment aspects dealing with the products/services now need to be in line with the World Trade Organization (WTO) trade agreement, which highlights the need for organizations to devise and opt for more credible, reliable and trustworthy Conformity Assessment systems (ie, testing, calibration, inspection, certification and accreditation) to facilitate acceptance of products/services nationally and across borders.
The Government of Pakistan, in public interest (public health and safety, security, infrastructure requirements, mass consumption) has enforced mandatory certification on 109 products through various Quality Control Orders issued from time to time. The PSQCA's Product Certification Scheme operates in an impartial, non-discriminatory and transparent manner. Procedures provide for maintaining a very high degree of confidentiality and integrity among its personnel who perform certification related tasks. Standardization has been a driving factor in the creation of the single market "one standard and one conformity assessment procedure". Pakistan standards usages as technical regulations help to eliminate technical barriers to trade. Harmonized Pakistan Standards can successfully contribute to the ease of trade within and outside Pakistan in major industrial sectors.
To ensure continual growth in developing countries like Pakistan, much more efforts are needed to create awareness in industry and consumers about the benefits of standards. PSQCA, with the support of Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST), is therefore strongly emphasizing on our manufacturers and exporters to ensure provision of quality products and services by scrupulously adhering to the international standards.
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