Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development
ZAMBIA: Joint UNIDO-WTO trade capacity-building programme framework
Through this project the Zambian Ministry of Commerce, Trade and Industry (MCTI) is being assisted in reviewing the overall organizational framework relating to standards, accreditation, inspection, testing and certification, i.e. the National Quality
Infrastructure (NQI), including the related legislation. In addition, the project is supporting the upgrading of facilities of the NQI institutions such as the Zambia Bureau of Standards (ZABS) and the Zambia Weights and Measures Agency (ZWMA) under MCTI as well as national testing laboratories to improve especially the food sector’s ability to prove conformity and hence facilitate exports. Thirdly, the project will endeavour to strengthen the ability of enterprises in selected sectors to comply with international quality requirements, creating a demand pull factor for the upgraded compliance infrastructure that deals with technical barriers to trade (TBT) and sanitary and phyto-sanitary measures (SPS).
The project will enhance the export performance of Zambia by strengthening the national legislative framework related to standards and metrology. At the same time, the establishment of a credible conformity assessment infrastructure will foster Zambia’s integration into the multilateral trading system. For more information, contact: TCB@unido.org
> Strengthening Zambia’s national legislative framework standards, technical regulations,metrology, testing and quality
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Zambia’s industry falls short of realizing its full export potential in global markets. A fundamental reason for this is that its national quality infrastructure and its technical regulation regime are not harmonized with those of its trading partners. Zambia needs to upgrade both. In particular, and of most immediate concern, it needs to formulate a national quality policy that can be integrated with a strengthened technical regulation regime.
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