Belarus Government Quality Achievements Award 2008 ceremony

By the end of 2008 the Government of Belarus will pass new legal instruments to facilitate administrative procedures and liberalise the economy, Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky said on December 17 during the Belarus Government Quality Achievements Award 2008 ceremony. At present any levers must be used to sell products and keep distribution areas, to avoid the stockpiling of finished goods and decline in purchasing power across the globe. That’s why the country’s leadership will pay special attention to the operation of Belarusian companies, manufacturing and sales of products.

“Instead of quality products our companies should manufacture high-quality science-intensive products,” remarked Sergei Sidorsky. In order to minimise the impact of the global financial crisis, the Belarusian government intends to take steps to support exporters.

The State Standardisation Committee of Belarus should continue working to expand the cooperation with notified agencies for the evaluation of conformance with requirements of the European Union. Prime Minister of Belarus Sergei Sidorsky remarked, Belarusian products have to be compliant with European Union requirements to enable Belarus’ equal participation in the international trade, first of all, in the European Union. Compliance will grant the CE marking right to Belarusian manufacturers. At present over 1,600 commodities from 69 manufacturers, including Atlant, Mogilevliftmash, Gomelglass, Horizont, Lidagroprommash, are entitled to CE marking. The manufacturers have successfully passed the verification of compliance for European requirements. Taking into account that conditions have been created in Belarus for confirming the compliance of major export commodity groups with European regulations, the main parts of the compliance confirmation procedure can be accomplished. For that the State Standardisation Committee should step up cooperation with notified bodies of the European Union.

Sergei Sidorsky also reminded, by the end of 2010 at least 2,500 Belarusian corporations should have their quality management systems certified for compliance with ISO 9001. This year’s number makes 1,760 corporations. As of December 10, 2008 1,580 quality management systems were certified. It is a good figure, believes the head of government.

By the end of 2010 environmental management systems of 255 enterprises (including at least 180 corporations in 2008) have to be certified for compliance with ISO 14001. At present 170 enterprises have ecological standards in Belarus.

The head of government also pointed out the importance of introducing HACCP-based systems for managing the quality and safety of food by 2010. At present there are 155 such companies in Belarus. By 2010 the number should be 250 at least.

“We should continue working in this area in the future. These days a new standard ISO 22000 is preferred when food products are exported, especially to the European Union. The standard indicates the safety of products from raw stock manufacturing to the sale of finished goods,” remarked Sergei Sidorsky. At present nine Belarusian companies are compliant with the standard, but the number is insufficient, the Prime Minister believes. Food exporters should step up efforts to assimilate the standard.