National quality policy about to be rolled out

The Barbados National Standards Institution (BNSI) is about to roll out its promised Barbados National Quality Policy which it hopes will better position firms to compete based on quality.
Acting Director of the BNSI Hadyn Rhynd said the buildout of complete quality infrastructure in Barbados was critical to ensuring the island’s continued competitiveness and economic growth.
“Barbados is on the cusp of implementing our quality national policy. This is critical for our landscape because what we are saying here is that we are recognising that quality is going to be used as a competitive strategy in a very focused way from the policy level,” he said.
“We have just started in the implementation phase. We are hoping that there is great uptake quickly. We are looking forward, sector by sector and ministry by ministry, to really embracing quality as a strategy. Countries who have successfully implemented national quality infrastructure have seen on average a 20 per cent growth in their GDP simply because they are addressing areas in their quality infrastructure.”
The Barbados National Quality Policy, a draft of which was developed in 2021, will document the benchmarks for local standards in every sector on the production of goods and services.
It is also expected to help facilitate the island’s access to global markets, thereby enhancing the competitiveness of locally produced goods and services.
“So this national quality policy really speaks to quality across all sectors of our development. It will not only increase our economic activity, but it will support consumer protection,” said Rhynd.
“It is going to be a comprehensive rollout across the landscape when we are implementing a quality policy. It really sets up Barbados to be competitive. We are not competitive if we do not take quality seriously. No longer can we say that we are just looking to operate in a domestic space . . . . Our competitors are now the international community. So for us to be competitive, we have to step up when it comes to the quality of our goods and services and quality across the board. This policy will set that framework.”
(MM)