Quality standards: The key to market expansion

Meeting the requirements of harmonize and international standards is an important “pedestal” to help businesses improve the quality and competitiveness; extensive international integration. However, many Vietnamese enterprises still do not really value the standard, or are aware of this issue incompletely.   

The key to market expansion

At the online seminar “National standards – important standards to improve the quality of Vietnamese goods” took place recently, Ms. Vu Kim Hanh – Chairman of the Vietnam Association of High Quality Enterprises – said that quality standards are the “key” to open the market for exported goods, but also technical barriers of importing countries. Technical barriers in international trade currently have 6 groups: Regulations and standards on product quality; safety for users; environment; social responsibility; product labeling; origin.

The deeper the integration, the more complex and difficult the technical barrier to overcome. “More than 25 years of supporting enterprises, I realize that technical standards and standards of the market are standards related to psychology, behavior, needs, expectations of consumers. That’s a necessary and sufficient condition. To integrate, Vietnamese products necessarily need to ensure the requirements of technical standards” – Ms. Vu Kim Hanh said.

At the same time, Mr. Tran Van Van – Vice President of Vietnam Association of Science and Technology Standards and Quality – said that from the early 1960s, when the first Vietnam Standards (TCVN) was issued (in 1962), up to now, Vietnam’s system of standards and technical regulations is constantly developing and increasingly in harmony with international standard, with the above 11,500 TCVN, more than 780 national technical regulations and tens of thousands of base standards in various fields, making it an important benchmark for production, business and management activities.

This system has contributed actively to improve the productivity and quality of products, ensuring safety for people and the environment; contributing to increasing exports and facilitating Vietnam’s trade transactions in the international arena. “Meeting the requirements of standards in harmony with international standards has helped Vietnamese enterprise access difficult markets smoothly, not hindered by technical barriers in export, and affirmed the quality level to compete equally with products of the same type in the international market” – Mr. Tran Van Van Emphasized.

Raising awareness for businesses

However, according to Ms. Vu Kim Hanh, the fact that many businesses do not really value the standard, or understand the standard has not come. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the decisive role of the State in leading, developing standards, communication and implementation in enterprises and farmers; monitor and monitor market information firmly.

The Vietnam Association of High Quality Enterprises recently coordinated with the Ministry of Science and Technology to develop a set of criteria for high quality Vietnamese goods meeting the integration standards. The set of criteria is built on the basis of cooperation with quality inspection agencies and organizations at home and abroad, General Department of Standards and Quality Measurement, Amcham, Eurocham … In the immediate past, the set of criteria applied to enterprises with the title of High Quality Vietnamese Goods was voted by consumers and exporters.

Mr. Tran Van Hoc said that standardization has contributed a very important part, fundamental to the existence and development of enterprises no matter how big or small. This has been demonstrated through many successful examples of enterprises in the world. However, the awareness of the role of standardization today of many enterprises is limited. Therefore, the first thing needs to raise awareness, knowledge and skills about standardization in general and standardization in the specialized field of enterprises in particular for all employees especially the head.

According to experts, when having the necessary knowledge and knowledge, enterprises need to plan the development of standardized activities with the participation of all departments of enterprises.

Productivity and Quality Office