Making Accreditation Board fully functional

That the Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB) is going to get its first international recognition is a piece of heartening news. Upon getting this, the BAB's functional role as an authorised agency for providing standard certificates for export and import goods will hopefully be bolstered up. Lack of accredited laboratories has for long been a crucial deterrent to accessing overseas markets as well as expansion of the country's export basket. As of now, local manufacturers, exporters, importers and service organisations have to obtain certification on various counts amid uncertainties. This is more pronounced these days than in the past. The destination markets, especially those in the developed countries, are now taking recourse to increasing trade barriers through stricter non-tariff measures on standards. Such barriers relate to, among others, sanitary and phyto-sanitary aspects.
While there is a dearth of well-equipped laboratories in the country to test products prior to exports, the need for compatibility with the standards of overseas markets is yet another major hurdle affecting exports. This is to say, equipping the labs with proper human, technical and logistic resources is not just enough to assure exporters of the entry of their products in the target markets. What is critically important is conformity assessment that can only be ensured through accredited agencies, authorised to conduct tests under strictly followed and monitored guidelines.   
Accreditation is an international practice in which certification of competency, authority or credibility is presented. Organisations that issue credentials or certify third parties are themselves formally accredited by accreditation bodies. The testing labs accredited to do the job are thus entrusted to ensure compliance with established technical requirements involving physical, chemical, forensic, quality and security standards. At the moment, there are testing labs in the country under various ministries, but lack of coordination, poor or deficient compliance of quality and technical standards, set out by the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), have resulted in a sense of uncertainty as to the acceptance of their certification in the overseas markets. The number of labs that are able to do the job with proper international accreditation are only few. As such, they are not in a position to cater to the requirements of a cross-section of products. The Bangladeshi products that are currently facing entry barriers due to inadequate test at home include pharmaceuticals, processed food products, spices, shrimps and frozen foods, leather and leather goods, to name some of the major ones. In the absence of the facility, local manufacturers are forced to send their products abroad for the required tests and compliance certification. By all means, this is quite expensive and renders the exported products less competitive.
Against this backdrop, accreditation of the BAB by relevant international bodies can facilitate exports by providing the much needed services prior to exports. The BAB has recently been evaluated by the Asia-Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC); although its final decision is still waiting, the authorities are hopeful of a positive decision soon. The BAB was set up way back in 2006 to upgrade quality assurance infrastructure and conformity assessment of the Bangladeshi products in the overseas markets. Over the years it has developed much of the required expertise including advanced technological support to claim recognition as an accredited body. In this context, operationalisation of the BAB in practical terms is expected to go a long way torwards promoting and facilitating exports.