 I'd like to welcome you to this World Standards Day activity. Every year we celebrate World Standards Day on the 14th of October. This year we are operating under the theme a shared vision for a better world advancing the national quality infrastructure. We have a brief program this morning where we will have sharing from our project partners on a dialogue for productivity and standards by Ms. Marina Suraj. Experts in Lucia will update us on the project with enhancing the capacity of stakeholders in the agricultural sector. We will also see an update from Standards and Tourism, from the Ministry of Tourism, and one of the highlights of this activity would be the signing of the MOU between the San Lucia Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Agriculture on the full operationalization of the National Agricultural Diagnostic Facility as part of the implementation of our national quality policy. The main objective of this MOU is to cooperatively implement the National Interagency Compliance System to ensure the regulated products entering San Lucia markets meet the technical regulations and the objectives of the National Agricultural Diversification Policy, the National Quality Policy, and the National Export Strategy. SLBS also wishes that you join with us in reaching another milestone as we have just this morning been officially informed that the SLBS Compliance Department has been approved by the Jamaica National Accreditation Agency in completing the assessment to ISO 17-020 for our inspection programs. At this time we will like to invite Ms. Marina Suraj to give us the dialogue on productivity and standards after which we will have a speech, a recorded speech from the Minister for World Standards Day and then we will move to Export Saint Lucia, the Ministry of Tourism, and then the signing of the MOU. On behalf of the rest of the team at the NCPC, I wish to thank the Bureau of Standards for allowing us a voice in today's proceedings. It is without question that there is a clearly defined link between standards and productivity and the critical role in strengthening our local economy. Standardization is deemed a very important driver for productivity as it seeks to strengthen customer confidence and holds a business resolute to the cyclical process of continuous improvement in the quality of its products and its services. This is a practice fully endorsed and encouraged by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, the NCPC. It is in this vein that the NCPC in its promotion of this quality-minded culture has designed and recently launched its business productivity measurement tool, the ProTool. We can all agree that continuous improvement assures that customers are satisfied by not only receiving products and services that meet their requirements but also by way of consistency in the delivery of a business's performance. It is with that knowledge that the very design of the ProTool was guided by the ISO 9000 standard series which emphasizes increased business efficiency and spotlight customer satisfaction. With this, I now invite you to view a short video presentation which gives further insights into the features and characteristics of this unique business productivity measurement tool, the ProTool. I take this opportunity to commend the Bureau of Standards for the role that you play in the development and promotion of conformity to standards in our local landscape and the NCPC lends its support to these efforts and looks forward to future collaborations as we collectively strive towards a more productive solution. I thank you for allowing me and please take a look at the video. A vibrant private sector is pivotal to a nation's viability. Private sector businesses are central to the national recovery process, particularly in the wake of natural disasters or global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Enhancing business productivity through improved data collection is part of the mandate of the NCPC. On a national level, the ProTool will provide insights into the challenges of the private sector allowing the NCPC the opportunity to undertake actions and to engage in collaborative efforts with donor agencies and other partners in crafting remedial actions to bridge existing gaps. The former chairman of the NCPC described the ProTool as an undiscovered gem in need of exposure to inspire and impact many. So when I came on board that was one of the first things that I put on the table that this ProTool needs to be dusted off, tidied up, modernized, updated and rolled out to the private sector because it is something that could be very useful in driving productivity and competitiveness in the private sector. The ProTool is an innovative productivity measuring tool developed by the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council. Harnessing the power of data for strategic decision making is at the heart of the ProTool. The ProTool is a web-based platform. It was designed for use across all economic activity areas by private sector businesses to help them monitor their productivity levels over a period of time. It is a very easy platform to use. It is user-friendly and it will ensure that businesses as they get into the practice of making database decisions have this instrument that will become impactful for them over time. You need to plan for productivity, implement your productivity measures and you need to check and this is where the ProTool comes in. It is that tool that you can use to check your productivity level and why is that important because productivity impacts your bottom line. Compete Caribbean partnership facility provided the technical and financial support to convert the Excel-based version of the ProTool to the upgraded online platform. We've been really pleased with the progress and the outcome of that initiative and we are happy to be at this stage. It is not going to be launched out to the business environment in solution more generally and expecting it to be a really important role in helping firms diagnose their current productivity performance and then being able to set in place really measurable and resolves focused plans to improve that performance over time. But what is so innovative about the ProTool? How does it work and what makes it a valuable tool to any business? The ProTool is a unique performance measurement tool unlike any other measurement tool that we have being used by businesses in that it is not just analytical it is also remedial. After the ProTool has assessed the performance of the business and it gives you a ranking on the various aspects of that business it will highlight the deficiencies and it will also offer you ways and methods in which you can improve your processes to ensure that these deficiencies over time do not exist anymore for your business. So it allows you to improve so that your deficiencies are decreased. Basically with productivity in a business you're saying I want more output phase units of input and if you're not measuring that if you're not looking at that in some way some structured way then then you're not going to achieve it you're not going to achieve greater productivity. The qualitative component of the ProTool was the component which I worked on that component involved the assessment as well as the recommendations so part of my assignment was to review the items as well as to review the recommendations and by the way that's a plus to that instrument in that you're not doing just a check but you're also looking at the act to improve when the recommendations have been given so for each item in the assessment what we did was we referenced the international standard that it was aligned to. Development of the ProTool included robust testing among members of the business community in St. Lucia including large small and medium enterprises. Suggestions for improvement and modification were taken on board to produce the updated version of the productivity measuring tool ProTool. Now my experience with ProTool is that it was actually quite easy to use the data that I had to input most of this was readily available from the our internal records and the I found that the software was user friendly the instructions were quite clear so completing the process was by no means difficult. Here at Harris Veins we pride ourselves on the quality of our products and level of customer service knowing our level of productivity is very important to us. The ProTool gives us the opportunity to measure both our qualitative and quantitative outputs. We at Harris Veins would certainly endorse the ProTool to any company. Whether you are a service oriented business or your main activity involves the production of any type of commodity your business productivity levels should be measured and monitored to help guide sound decision making for the growth and development of your business. The ProTool undoubtedly will be an invaluable instrument to provide assistance to all MSMEs on the journey to increase operational effectiveness and resilience. Miss Suraj and the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council at this time we call on Miss Nelsia Shalmaine of Esq Sports in Lucia who will give us an update on a collaborative project between Esq Sports in Lucia and SLBS. Good morning everyone I'm going to adopt the protocol already established and share warm wishes from my CEO and the rest of the Esq Sports in Lucia team. I'm Nelsia Shalmaine I'm the Public Relations Officer at Esq Sports in Lucia. When we were invited to participate in today's world standards the event we found it fitting to explain to you and to the public how standards play an important role in Esq Sports which is what we facilitate at Esq Sports in Lucia. So at Esq Sports in Lucia we are acutely aware of the importance of standards in exporting and that includes the fact that they reduce barriers associated of trade and allow for access to new markets which is what we really strive to do for our clients at Esq Sports in Lucia. Additionally for buyers for consumers both locally and in international markets standards often signal that the product is of high quality and that is really what we want. We do not want for buyers to be questioning that locally produced items are not up to par with what their consumers are used to. Standards also increase business productivity and efficiency as you would have heard from the NCPC and they make producers more competitive by enhancing their status as a certified company. Now we do this and we promote this by working hand in hand with the Esq Lucia Bureau of Standards and to just explain a little bit about the role of SLBS in exporting is that they provide services like ensuring that barcodes labeling and packaging are up to standard before a shipment can be exported as well as providing guidance on HASAP compliance for clients with production facilities. So for anyone who comes to Exq Sports in Lucia looking to sell their products outside of our borders we would have to direct them to SLBS and we are very grateful for that continued partnership and for the level of collaboration that we get from the SLBS. Additionally all exporters must obtain a certificate of free sale and as many of you would know this is available right here at the SLBS and certain agriculture products require pack house certification in order to be exported and the SLBS provides that certification. Now this is a great segue into one of our ongoing partnerships and it is a project it's a bit of a mouthful but titled enhancing the capacity of stakeholders in the agriculture sector to supply quality products in new markets and this project is funded by the EPA CSMB standby facility and aims to make Saint Lucia and agricultural produce more competitive in international markets by ensuring that farms farmers and pack houses are certified in the relevant standards that will make them more attractive to outside buyers and to be able to enter markets such as Canada the USA and new markets in the European Union where we are not already exporting our products to and we are doing this export Saint Lucia is implementing this project with a host of local partners including the Sa'athalos Community College and of course the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards and the role of the Bureau of Standards in this project is to develop together Sa'athalos Community College an online training program in GAP, GMP and HACCP and this online training program will be delivered to farmers across Saint Lucia by the Sa'athalos Community College. However the SLBS is providing all of the requisite technical guidance for this component of the project and for that we are ever grateful. This project was launched back in July of this year and since then export Saint Lucia has been working with farmers to a diagram running we have visited pack houses we have consulted with farmers we have noted what needs to be done and we are very excited to continue to work with the Bureau to ensure that over the next 18 months or so that this project is completed and not not just completed but completed successfully resulting in new exports of Saint Lucia agricultural products to new parts of the world and that is the end of it for any more information on this and on our collaboration you can visit our website at export Saint Lucia dot org. Okay before we play the minister's address we would take the standards and tourism and we'll play the address just before we do the signing of the MOU and Madam Minister if you would want to bring any greetings we would do that before we sign the MOU. For a person who may not know the minister was very instrumental in ensuring that the requisite budgetary support for NADAF was provided and we do have financial constraints and to be able to achieve the feat of getting that support was something which was very notable and we do anticipate the continued support in the coming budget. At this time we will ask Miss Anne Margaret Adams Deputy Permanent Secretary for Ministry of Tourism to make a presentation on standards and tourism coincidentally Miss Anne Margaret is also the chair of our tourism and related services technical committee. I bring to you as well a warm welcome from the Ministry of Tourism so I'd like to adopt the protocol that has already been established. My presentation is basically to share with you our the marriage we've had between the Ministry of Standards and the Ministry of Tourism so over the last two decades the ministry has been actively involved in the development of standards in keeping with our objective of improving the quality of our product and of course ensuring that the tourism industry attains a very high level of competitiveness customer satisfaction and also to ensure that it aligns with our vision for solution being the premise of providing a unique high quality tourism product. Of course enshrined in our tourism strategy is that the need for competitiveness depends on compliance with standards and it is very it is necessary. I think we all are aware of COVID and how COVID has really changed the landscape in which we do business. We can no longer do business as usual and there are many issues that affect the long-term sustainability of our sector and they range from the limited product innovation, poor standards within our small accommodation sector, issues with limited skills and training in the hospitality sector and the limited services standards across the sector. So how have we responded to that? We have developed a number of standards over the last couple of decades in fact most of the sectors within the industry within the industry there are standards their nationally adopted standards for the tourism sector and we have established a regime that will assist in regulating monitoring standards of products and services within the tourism industry and it is actually a very major policy initiatives which forms part of our comprehensive tourism development legislation that we are actually in the process of formulating. It will be called the tourism development act and the ministry is actually scheduled to host a series of consultations or sensitization sessions on the importance of standards and the requirements to be compliant with this legislation. So it will center around building awareness among the operators on what the standards are and how they can meet the standards to be able to continue to operate within the tourism sector. So all of our operators will be required to meet the standards to be endorsed by the Ministry of Tourism so that they can operate within acceptable standards. So the new policy direction will ensure of course increased compliance with industry standards because we all want that level of compliance to ensure that the product meets a certain quality the service that is offered as well is one that is second to none and it will ensure of course that customer satisfaction is improved, the service quality delivery and of course confidence in the destination is also maintained. Of course the incidences of visitor complaints will be kept at minimum and of course improving our destination rating as tourism. So several months ago as well we collaborated with the Bureau of Standards in participating in a national quality dialogue and we are very grateful for that opportunity as well to build awareness among our operators on the importance of standards. They had the opportunity to really express what the issues are that gaps are in the quality of service that's delivered and the products within the various sectors. We participated in fact we focused on a few sectors but I think the intention is rather to ensure that this roadmap that was actually developed is really implemented so we have developed a roadmap as a result of this quality dialogue then we'll continue to use this roadmap to address the gaps that have been identified within the various sectors. So the ministry is very aware that we cannot do this alone of course it requires a partnership and we are very grateful for that partnership that we have established over the last couple of decades and we thank the Bureau of Standards of course in giving us the opportunity to partner with them. They are actually key in that process and the consultations that we'll be having over the next few weeks so we are very grateful and we thank you for that opportunity and congratulate you on celebrating all standards. Thank you. The St. Lucia Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Commerce Business Development Corporates and Consumer Affairs are pleased to join the members of the International Organization for Standards the ISO International Electrotechnical Commission and the International Telecommunication Union in celebrating World Standards Day on 14th October 2022. Annually on this day the world celebrates the unifying construct of standardization which empowers, augments and impacts our way of life. Standards serve to minimize the contrast between developed and developing countries. Standards are the catalyst which opens up the opportunity for global trade to many of our MSMEs. Through adoption of good practices standards are the enabling measures which will aid St. Lucia in its pursuit towards achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. As a small island developing state which wants to affirm its presence and participation on the global stage we must place emphasis on our standards and our national quality infrastructure. The Government of St. Lucia has placed the implementation of a national quality policy as priority on the agenda of its national development strategy. We recognize that while the administrative structure of Government can create an implement policy to realize this our culture must also be reflective of a people who embrace and engender the concept of standards to constantly improve our quality of life. It is with this global understanding that the theme for this year's world standard day is and I quote, a shared vision for a better world, a global call to action urging all societies and governments to play their part in protecting our beautiful planet and improving the lives and economic prospects of all. A good national quality infrastructure is characterized by the following components, standards, quality promotion, conformity assessments which includes testing, calibration, certification and inspection, accreditation and meteorology. The St. Lucia Bureau of Standards in its mission to contribute to the advancement of the national economy supports sustainable development, promotes health and safety of consumers, protects the environment and facilitates trade. Accordingly the Bureau has been tasked with the management of the national quality infrastructure. In order for the quality infrastructure to be fully developed there must be a close partnership between the public and private sectors. This partnership can only be effective if the national quality infrastructure is developed in a methodical and structured manner. This process involves establishing a national quality policy and constructing a national quality council comprising of key government and private sector stakeholders. As the custodian of St. Lucia's national quality infrastructure the Bureau has demonstrated its commitment to quality by the continued certification to ISO 9001, the accreditation of our meteorology lab to ISO 17-025, a first in the OECS and the progress towards our accrediting, our conformity assessment process to ISO 17-020. With the aid of the Commonwealth Standards Network we continue our participation in the new phase termed the Standards Partnership which aims at furthering strengthening trade through standards. In phases one and two of the Commonwealth Standards Network St. Lucia augmented its standards portfolio by adopting standards linked to SDGs and national priorities. This has strengthened St. Lucia's ability to demonstrate the use of and conformity to international standards which will significantly improve our suite of demand-driven quality products for export. A critically important aspect of the work at the Bureau involves the implementation of the national quality policy to guide the development of St. Lucia's pathway to economic recovery as we continue to grapple with external shocks. The policy is designed to address short and long-term needs that will provide the appropriate mechanisms for assisting local entrepreneurs including MSMEs to access local, regional and global markets while also ensuring human, animal, plant health as well as the safety and protection of the environment. The Bureau has embarked on several joint initiatives with other state entities such as the Ministry of Commerce, Cannabis Task Force, our Ministry of Agriculture, National Agriculture Diagnostic Facility, the Safer Lewis Community College, Export St. Lucia, Ministry of Tourism and the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council to name a few. All in an effort to build capacity, increase resilience and create opportunities for our local entrepreneurs to tap and reach international markets that were previously unattainable. By providing standards and standards training, the Bureau aims to strengthen the national quality infrastructure by doing the following, using standards and measurement techniques to create better, safer and more sustainable products, enhancing consumer protection, reducing technical barriers to trade, reducing the cost of international trade, helping our products and services become internationally competitive. Businesses will profit as standards assisting achieving economic advantages, improving manufacturing processes, saving time and money on research and development, reducing waste in materials and labor, reducing inventory costs, reducing overall costs of design and manufacturing, and improving competitiveness. Our people can be secure in knowing that the products and services we receive are safe and of required quality, adhere to country regulations, ensure sustainability and protection of the environment. I am certain that with the wide diversity of standards we are developing and adopting, we will see a marked improvement in the quality of life of our people. We now have standards dealing with almost every facet of society, the environment and the economy. Environmental standards dealing with our climate and sustainable development, such as guidelines for recreational water quality, environmental management systems. We have food safety and agricultural standards to enhance food, such as code of good agricultural practices for the production of fresh produce, code of practice for packaging and transport of fresh fruits and vegetables, code of good agricultural practices for swine, standard for food and beverage preparation services. We have tourism standards to constantly improve our competitiveness, such as specification for tourist accommodation, general requirements and hotel requirements, standard for water-based tourism. As our government seeks to ensure relevant and innovative policies of socioeconomic importance, we will be adopting a variety of cannabis standards from the American Society of Technology and Materials to assist in developing the cannabis industry. Very soon we will have our own switch of national cannabis standards. I call on all citizens, we are all stakeholders in the economy, society and environment of St. Lucia. We should all participate through the public comment stage of the standardization process in an effort to create and maintain greater quality outcomes for all. I wish to extend sincere thanks to the people of St. Lucia and the volunteers on the technical committees who have helped develop and shape national standards. Let me therefore wish you a happy World Standard Day 2022. I thank you. It is great honor and pleasure for me to have the opportunity to sign this memorandum of understanding between the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development, and the National Agriculture Diagnostic Facility. The St. Lucia Bureau of Standards and the Ministry of Agriculture have had a very productive collaboration over the past years. Our partnership has been focusing on improving agricultural research and technology to expand food production and productivity, critical areas which are necessary in meeting the requirements of international markets as well as the needs of our stakeholders, whether they be agro-processors, farmers or exporters. Through this MOU, we reaffirm this partnership with modalities of cooperation and types of activities to include producing and disseminating analytical work, implementing capacity building initiatives, information sharing and exploring the potential of co-financing of programs and projects where feasible and appropriate. We will continue to build on our respective strengths and comparative advantages to build synergies and complement each other's strategic work programs, especially in the following areas, promotional standards, laboratory quality management, food safety, pest and disease surveillance, market access, metrology services. I am confident that the Analytical Diagnostic and Capacity Development work of the National Diagnostic Facility complements the programs of the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards, not only in supporting the work of agro-processors, farmers and other stakeholders in meeting market requirements during trade, but also in promoting the overall health and safety of our nation. I would like, on behalf of my minister and PS, take this opportunity to again thank the director of the Bureau of Standards, Mr. Von Immanuel and his team at the SLBS for the commitment in strengthening our collaboration. I thank you and I wish you also a happy international standard speech. It is extremely important and for us that today will international world standards day that you have the Ministry of Agriculture signing an MOU with the Bureau because most of you may not know but last year, last year, when we started going through the budget process, we had to impress upon our minister of finance and prime minister that we needed funding for the diagnostic lab. And that was so because when I sat with the director of export St. Lucia, Ms. Daniel, we felt it was critical that our exporters had items for testing and we knew they were spending quite a bit of money sending these items. Our manufacturers were spending quite a bit of money sending their items overseas for testing and I felt it was important that we had invested again through the Ministry of Commerce and Ministry of Agriculture a few years ago we invested in ensuring that we had a lab and there we had the building there and we are told that it was not operating at the level that we wanted. So our prime minister heard our plea and we had some half a million dollars assigned in the budget to cause the lab to be operational. So it is very important that today on world standards day we are signing this MOU so our farmers could benefit, our manufacturers could benefit, our small business persons exporting could benefit. When we look at the work that is happening at the bureau and I see the head of metrology here when I visited the diagnostic lab I complained that our space at the bureau did not have enough space at the center so we will negotiate that at a different level but I am pleased when I walked around the lab I must tell you that I was pleased that we had young sent Lucians who were ready and able to operate and do the testing that we require. I think that we have to use this moment to tell the world tell the farmers what we can do for them because I know there are challenges on the ground that we need testing we need services and Ministry of Agriculture you need to tell the farmers that you are ready you are ready to serve them and I am pleased as well to tell our exporters that now your government have placed this money there to operationalize the lab and we are ready to test some of the products that you have for export. So with these viewers I want to congratulate the staff the director the board members the volunteers and the staff of the bureau for the excellent work that you are doing and for them to understand the importance of that work in the economic development of our country. I also want to thank the other institutions here the Ministry of Tourism and the work that you are doing in terms of bringing standards and improving our tourism product the Ministry of Agriculture and the work that you are doing in terms of ensuring that our farmers again up to standard and export sent Lucian ensuring that we open the markets so that the goods that we produce here in sent Lucian are receiving the the market access that is so critical for us. So all in all I want to say thank you on behalf of our Prime Minister and our Cabinet of Ministers for the work that you are doing on the ground thank you thank you thank you