OREANDA-NEWS. March 12, 2010. More efforts are required to bring Belarusian products into compliance with European Union standards, First Deputy Chairman of the State Standardization Committee of Belarus Viktor Nazarenko told media on 11 March.

According to Viktor Nazarenko, every year over 500 state standards are approved in Belarus. Last year saw around 1,000 standards approved, with 80% compliant with international ones. Most of the documents are related to civil engineering. On the whole, the assimilation of European standards in the industrial sector is most important for the country because the process determines the competitive ability of the national economy. Viktor Nazarenko remarked that a lot of efforts are exercised in all provinces of Belarus, including the Gomel Oblast. “But in order to reach the European quality edge, the efforts should be stepped up,” he stressed.

A standard represents a consensus between manufacturers, customers and the government, said Viktor Nazarenko. The introduction of international standards is heavy work for a company because apart from retooling the process requires the company to cross over to a new technological level and build a smooth system to control product quality. To reach the goal, every company should be aware of international requirements and should put efforts into it on a daily basis without expecting someone else to do their job for them, Viktor Nazarenko is convinced.

The First Deputy Chairman of the State Standardization Committee of Belarus added that the Gomel Oblast along with Minsk and the oblast are at the forefront of the introduction of new requirements for manufacturing technologies and management.

Viktor Nazarenko took part in an oblast seminar “Gomel Oblast development in the Year of Quality”. The event gathered top executives and specialists of the oblast administration, representatives of city, town and region authorities, and the Gomel Oblast Association of Trade Unions.