The
Gambia Standards Bureau yesterday briefed the press on the forthcoming World
Standards Day, slated for October 14.
The
theme for this year World Standards Day is “Standards build trust”.
Speaking
to the press at the Gambia Standards Bureau office in Fajara, the Director
General of the Standards Bureau, Papa Secka, said the day was set aside to
create awareness on the role of standards in both national and global
economies.
It
is also to pay tribute to the thousands of experts worldwide who collaborate
within the International Electro-Technical Commission (IEC), International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International Organisation for
Standardisation (ISO) to develop voluntary international standards.
He
said these organisations have come together to form a cooperation mechanism
known as the World Standardisation Cooperation.
Mr
Secka stated that the reasons are simple, because the activities needed to be
coordinated properly by the named organisations.
“IEC
is the International Standardisation Body responsible for all electrical and
allied products,” he said, adding that they had not entered into developing
standards on specific areas of telecommunications, and this is under the
purview of the International Telecommunication Unions.
Mr
Secka further added that standards connect them with reliable modes of
communication, codes of practice and trusted frameworks for cooperation and
introducing common interpretations on reciprocal sides of a communication or
transaction.
Standards are essential to mutually beneficial
trade and resource efficient international commerce, and social interaction
relies on common respect for fundamental sets of norms, concepts or meaning,
and international standards codify these norms to ensure they are accessible to
all.
Also
speaking at the briefing session was the Director of Standardisation Division,
Bai Dodou Jallow, who said in celebrating World Standards Day, the Bureau in
the last few years had focused a lot in trying to make key stakeholders be
sensitised when it comes to the activities, roles and functions of the Gambia’s
Standard Bureau.
The
Bureau has been celebrating this day annually by going to institutions and
talking to students, he said.
This
year, he added, the Bureau tries to move on to other things when it comes to
the activities of the celebration.
“We
want to go upcountry to interact with the stakeholders, consumers and a
cross-section of the communities and the users of standards in the regions.”
A
nationwide sensitisation activity in all regions, on the importance of World
Standards Day, would be conducted, especially on published national standards,
he further stated.