New Metrology Bill to promote trade for Guyana

GINA, GUYANA, Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Guyana is set to be benefit significantly in the area of trade from the new Metrology Bill as the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS), which falls under the purview of the Ministry of Business, held their final consultations today at the National Library at Main and Church Streets, Georgetown. The consultations saw participants from the Public and Private Sectors.

Executive Director of the GNBS, Candelle Walcott-Bostwick said that the Metrology Bill has been designed to ensure that Guyana has a modernised metrology infrastructure which will ensure fair trade, foster economic development, economic efficiency technological and scientific progression of the country and the protection of its health, environment and the wellbeing of its citizens and consumers.

Walcott-Bostwick said that the GNBS will have the authority to ensure that all weighing and measuring devices imported and used for trade are calibrated or verified for accuracy in metric units, which is also applicable to Government Departments. She explained that all prepackaged goods must be labeled with the correct net content.

The Director stated that the Bill has expanded the scope of measuring devices used in the fields such as health and safety, postal services, electricity and water, law enforcement activities and industry and stringent measures for enforcement will be applied.

The Metrology Bill will see the establishment of a national metrology institute which is the GNBS. The institute will establish the national measurement system used to maintain, develop, and diffuse measurement standards for basic units and to diffuse metrological expertise to the economy. “These institutes operate in the primary calibration market: they disseminate measurement standards by providing calibration services to independent calibration laboratories and other organizations responsible for regulations and standards, Walcott-Bostwick explained.

Metrology is the science of measurement. It can be subdivided into: Scientific metrology, the development and organization of the highest level of measurement standards; Legal metrology, the assurance of correctness of measurements where these have an influence on the transparency of trade, law enforcement, health, and safety; and Industrial metrology, the satisfactory functioning of measurement instruments used in industry, production, and testing.

The Director informed  the stakeholders that the setting up a (QIS) is one of the most positive and practical steps that a developing nation such as Guyana can take on the path forward to develop a thriving economy as a basis for prosperity, health and well-being. She notes that a QIS contributes to governmental policy objectives in areas of industrial development, trade competitiveness in global markets among others.

“It offers a complete package addressing the needs of the nation’s citizens, of customers and consumers, and of enterprises and other

organizations that offer them products and services,” Walcott-Bostwick said.

A Quality Infrastructure System (QIS), which the GNBS is working on establishing, is a combination of initiatives, institutions, organizations, activities and people. It includes a national quality policy and institutions to implement it, a regulatory framework, quality service providers, enterprises, customers and consumers (which includes citizens as “consumers” of government services).

The Director explained that when the QIS is established manufacturers and suppliers will benefit because the QIS promotes their use of international standards to ensure that their products and services meet state of the art requirements, while their business processes are on the management system standards recognized worldwide. Regulators benefit because the QIS helps them to identify and specify the standards and conformity assessment processes they can use to ensure that public interest requirements, such as health, safety and environmental, are being met.

While, the government will benefit because the QIS puts at its disposal a system for stimulating the economy, increasing the competitiveness of its industry on global markets, using resources efficiently, sharing technological know-how, tackling environmental and climate-related challenges among others, the Director explained.

When the Metorlogy Bill becomes law it will provide support to the GNBS in carrying out its objectives and functions.

 

By: Gabreila Patram