Earlier this week in Petion-Ville, a workshop brought together for two days, Dominican and Haitian professionals around the issue of quality infrastructure in the two economies on the island. Organized by the Haitian Bureau of Standards (BHN) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry of Haiti, in partnership with the European Union, and in the presence of the Dominican Institute for Quality (INDOCAL), this workshop which was held around the theme on "An island, a test, a measure: accepted," was conceived as a field of trade facilitation, to strengthen cooperation between the two countries, the transparency of their commercial exchanges, safety and product quality.

During this binational event, 8 projects have been designed to provide solutions to different challenges shared by the two Republics in the fields of standardization, certification and metrology. The BHN, through this initiative, wanted to lay the groundwork for the facilitation of sustainable and equitable exchanges between Haiti and the Dominican Republic, while identifying the needs of both countries in infrastructure quality.

According to Michelle Paultre, Director of BHN a work of harmonization and cooperation is necessary and important "If a certificate is issued by a certification structure in Haiti, this certificate should be accepted by the Dominican Republic."

If to conquer foreign markets, the two countries want to raise their production to international standards, they will face the lack of qualified human resources in the field of standardization and metrology. Aware of these weaknesses, Dominicans and Haitians are united through this workshop for the strengthening of the structure quality of their productions.

Yolette Azor, Deputy Director of the cooperation program Haiti - Dominican Republic (trade section), said that a steering committee will be formed to complete the work program. The elements of a cooperation protocol between BHN and INDOCAL were defined. The need for quality infrastructure in both countries have been identified and a plan of binational work was developed in the fields of standardization, metrology and conformity assessment.

SL/ HaitiLibre