Hon Chairperson, Deputy Minister, members, up to now I have been listening to the debate, and we are all saying the same things. When our colleagues from the left-hand side are not speaking English, I don't understand them, but I presume we are still speaking about the same thing. However, I'm given two minutes, so I still want to use my two minutes, just to emphasise our support of this Bill.
The use of well-written standards in the conformity assessment process adds credibility and validity to the process. Standards should also specify all essential characteristics of our products. We are now part of our new global economy. I think everyone in this House would agree: We need a vision of how we can make South African product inspections and tests acceptable everywhere, not just in South Africa. We must strive to maintain the highest level of protection of safety and environment.
So, I challenge the government and the South African National Accreditation System, or Sanas, to work as partners to act aggressively, persistently and intelligently to advance our concepts as the basis for international standards. We cannot risk the prospect that our products and companies will be locked out of future markets.
It is well known that South Africa has a very good technical infrastructure and needs to keep up with international standards, especially in terms of measurement standards. Let us not forget that measurements are a key to competitiveness. There has never been a time in which measuring accurately has been more important to the nation's economic health.
Laboratory accreditation, product certification and management systems are too often used as nontariff trade barriers. Where one or more of these processes are needed to improve confidence between buyers and sellers or by regulators, this is where the National Measurement Institute can work to assure that the systems are open and add value rather than costs. Thank you very much.