At GNBS observance…
GUYANA Manufacturing and Services Association (GM&SA), in pursuance of its mission, is aiming at a number of goals in its current strategic plan.
The President, Mr. Clinton Williams spoke of them, on Wednesday, at the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) observance of World Accreditation Day.
The occasion, themed ‘Global Acceptance’, also saw the unveiling of the National Accreditation Focal Point.
Williams took the opportunity to congratulate GNBS on assuming its rightful role as the focal point for accreditation in Guyana.
The two-fold event was staged in the Essequibo Room of Pegasus Hotel, in Kingston, Georgetown, with participants from the private and public sectors.
In his presentation on ‘The role of GM&SA in assuring international accreditation for its membership, Williams said accrediting can mean different things to different people but, simply put, can be described as a process whereby a company is furnished with credentials to be a reputable manufacturer of a product and/or service provider that has not only met but continuously displays a set of pre-determined and internationally recognised standards associated with that particular industry or service.
“For this reason, accreditation has now become a vital mandatory requirement among businesses that are engaged in international trade, whether categorised as a manufacturing concern or a service provider,” he said.
In that context, Williams said it would seem logical that accreditation mechanisms would, of necessity, rank highest among any evaluation criteria that any investor would wish to make in pursuit of any sound investment.
Referring to the GM&SA mission statement, he pointed to its provision of institutional capacity in Guyana to initiate, advocate and promote programmes and policies for the development and growth of the manufacturing and related services sectors, as well as to enhance members’ competitiveness.
Williams said GM&SA, in pursuing its quest, has decided on objectives which include provision of good governance and maximise cooperation between Government and the Private Sector; strengthen executive and membership commitment; build a more action oriented association, national, regional and international linkages among organisations; increase manufacturing sector contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) through increased competitiveness and advocacy; diversification and growth of GM&SA revenues; promote opportunities for access to offshore financing; build proficiency in Information Communication Technology (ICT) strategies and development capabilities to conduct market research and feasibility studies in pursuance of opportunities in manufacturing and services sectors and initiate and implement continuous skill development programmes.

OPPORTUNITIES

He said GM&SA has been going after numerous opportunities to access offshore funding to realise the mandate.
In that regard, Williams disclosed that GM&SA recently obtained US$3.25M funding from Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) to implement the Caribbean Regional Human Resource Development Management Programme for Economic Competitiveness (CPEC) Project.
He said, for the purpose, a substantial amount of money was invested in training, and capacity building, with respect to quality assurance, management standards and, more particularly, accreditation certification.
Williams explained that, among the beneficiaries, were GNBS, which was strengthened in terms of capacity building.
He also said that three companies in the manufacturing sector were certified as compliant with ISO 9001 after a series of training and development programmes and two more companies were added, following the completion of the programme.
Williams said two businesses in the fisheries sector were certified with Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) status, enabling them to export seafoods into the European market.
He announced that all of the major terminals in Port Georgetown became compliant and certified by the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) and GM&SA has been in the forefront of ensuring that local companies, whether in the services or manufacturing sectors, comply with regulations.
“With the emergence of new regulations, within which there is substantial bias now for what is called clean production process (CPP) and environmental management systems (EMS), these tendencies now pose a change with regards to the implementation of a new framework to ensure compliance and improved environmental performance for companies in Guyana,” Williams said.
At the same time, he noted that companies will need to become much more efficient, improve environmental performance and comply with stringent standards, such as ISO 14000 series, if they are to maintain and expand their global market position.
Against this background, he said GM&SA took the initiative to engage the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to finance a US$600,000 18 months environmental management systems (EMS) scheme, through its multilateral investment fund.
Williams said that is scheduled to commence by the second half of this year and the stakeholders to be involved in its implementation are the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Institute of Applied Science and Technology (IAST) with support from the School of Environmental Science at University of Guyana (UG) and GNBS.
He said it is intended to realise the introduction of small companies to ISO 14000 Standards Regulations; Certification and Accreditation; capacity building through training and development in environmental matters; introduction of CPP and EMS; continued improvement of the institutional strengthening of GM&SA to access international environmental funds and establishment of innovative environmental projects which address pollution control, product recycling, water disposal and such relevant issues.