Standards are everywhere, yet invisible to most. Standards define
how products, processes, and people interact with each other and their
environments—assessing their features and performance, conveying
information, and providing means of communication. Under the
appropriate conditions, standards have important benefits for trade,
productivity, and technological progress. Standards also support
government efforts to protect consumers—including their safety
and health—and the environment. Quality and standards are
inherently connected because standards are often used to codify
technical requirements expected by customers or governments.
Firms’ ability to fully exploit the benefits of standards
depends on a supportive national quality infrastructure. The term
national quality infrastructure denotes the complete chain of public
and private institutions required to establish and implement the
standardization, metrology, inspection, testing, certification, and
accreditation services needed to ascertain that products and services
meet defined requirements, whether demanded by authorities or the
market.
In much of Eastern Europe and Central Asia (ECA), the national
quality infrastructure does not support business competitiveness, and
in many countries of the region, it even impedes competitiveness. ECA
national quality infrastructure systems remain underdeveloped and
unharmonized with those of their trade partners. As a result, standards
remain important contributors to trade costs in ECA and play a critical
role in the region’s export performance.
ECA countries can support business competitiveness by abolishing
mandatory standards, streamlining technical regulations, and
harmonizing their national quality infrastructure with regional and
international trade partners. Most governments in the region need to
make investments to upgrade their national quality infrastructure-but
they must ensure that this effort is cost-effective, does not replicate
services available in neighboring countries, and is accompanied by
efforts to stimulate demand for quality. In most countries of the
former Soviet Union, a first step to building supportive institutions
is to restructure the national quality infrastructure and improve its
governance to eliminate conflicts of interest and provide technically
credible services to the economy.
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