 The importance of standards in the business sector came in for sharp focus Thursday as Indusha observed World Standards Day, another theme shared vision for a better world. Honourable Emma Hippolyte is the Minister for Commerce, Manufacturing, Business Development, Corporate and Consumer Affairs. My ministry recognizes the importance of businesses in developing economies like ours to continually work at ensuring the quality of the products and services conformed to internationally recognized standards. The significance of this cannot be overemphasized. Our businesses which adopt ISO standards stand to benefit tremendously. For instance, companies implementing the quality management systems standard ISO 9001 which ensures quality and safety with regard to processes gain increased customer satisfaction due in part to the trust created from the application of these standards. In addition, the resulting operational efficiencies enable them to benefit from cost savings and increase probabilities for sustainability. Minister Hippolyte lauded the efforts of the St. Lucia Bureau's standards in championing the National Standards Mark which has opened a window of opportunities for the private sector beyond the island's shores. Locally, the St. Lucia Standards Mark has been actively used in the bottle water sector with increasing demands in order manufacturing sectors. Companies achieve increased market presence through the use of the mark based on the confidence of the consuming public in the quality associated with the processes and bringing these products to market. Let me take this moment to urge all local businesses to take advantage of the benefits the standard mark affords. All the standards they observed annually on the 14th of October.