"Quality standards are set to play a leading role in creating a market advantage for organisations complying with conformity assessment requirements which includes testing and certification, thereby ensuring that products and services meet standards as prescribed by South African National Standards," said Sadhvir Bissoon, executive on standards at the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS).
Procurement procedures in both the private and public sector must be geared to ensure the highest quality in the production of goods and provision of services to create a platform for business competitiveness and long term sustainability. A current trend and key governance measure to indicate effective utilization of taxpayer funds is the requirement of SABS certification as a qualification criterion in a number of government tenders.
"This is good news for entrepreneurs as SABS certification provides the reassurance of product and service quality, enhances market access, and ultimately contributes to business stability and job creation that provide the platform to socio-economic growth of our country," adds Bissoon.
An additional advantage for SMEs that comply with the standards is that they will be able to compete on a level playing field with larger enterprises, whilst capitalising on export markets as the SABS' national standards are aligned to international ISO standards.
