TBS to develop import quality control mechanism

TBS director general Egid Mubofu

What you need to know:

  • The mechanism is aimed at ensuring quality assurance for consumers and establish fair competition against locally made goods.

Dar es Salaam. The Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) is developing the import standardisation mark to be applied on all imported goods.

The mechanism is aimed at ensuring quality assurance for consumers and establish fair competition against locally made goods.

This was revealed yesterday by TBS director general Egid Mubofu during the 6th Applied Research Conference in Africa (ARCA 2017) organised by the College of Business Education (CBE) in the city.

Prof Mubofu said the mechanism, which started being developed since 2014, would help step up war on counterfeit products.

“It is our commitment to ensure that all products entering our local market meet the minimum required standards,” he told the 3-day event.

He added that the mark would offer solution to the chalelnge of unfair competition when inferior goods are made to compete with quality ones.

Prof Mubofu said for Tanzania to realise its 2025 Vision of becoming a middle income economy through industrialisation, strong National Quality Infrastructure (NQI) was inevitable.

“We need good policy; legal, regulatory and administrative frameworks as well as institutional (private and or government) arrangements to protect domestic industries by making sure whatever enters the country conforms to local standards,” he insisted.

The move, according to him, would even attract more investors in the manufacturing sector.

His sentiments were echoed by CBE rector Emanuel Mjema on the grounds that a good business environment was a key catalyst for leveraging locally produced goods on competitiveness for global market access.

“This is good because it might make costs of production reasonable, improve confidence of our products and hence simplify access to the global market,” noted Prof Mjema.

He called on Tanzanian researchers who participated in the ARCA conference to borrow a leaf from other countries on how different sectors were handled.

The conference brought together researchers from across Africa to discuss different disciplines including agriculture, mining, hospitality and tourism, oil and gas and energy, business and entrepreneurship, and communication technology.

Prof Mjema said the conference would act as a catalyst to industrialisation drive in different ways including dissemination of research findings presented that can be adopted into the local development context.

“As we all know industrialisation is a cross-cutting issue that involves all issues that have been and will be discussed in the conference. Research remains crucial towards enhancing increased production,” he said.

Officiating at the conference, Labour, Youth, Employment, and People with Disability deputy minister Anthony Mavunde aired the same views that the government needed research for it to realise its industrialisation dream.

He said the government was committed towards supporting institutions and researchers through increasing its budget (without quantifying) for research to enhance academicians establish new and best ways of effectively and efficiently handling local industries.

“There is no way we can avoid research, if we are to produce competitive goods which meet international standards, especially now as we embark on the industrialisation drive,” noted Mr Mavunde.