Ministry of Commerce And Supplies - Enhanced Integrated ...

N T I S2010Act 1980. So far, 130 firms have been awarded licences for a total of 55 product categories. 9 Out of these, 35firms have received the NS marks for ten food products.The NBSM has been successful in issuing licences to only a few products of export interest, including instantnoodles, vegetable ghee, biscuit, beer, iron products (rods/GI sheets, etc.), paints, cement, GI/HDPE pipes,steel bars, insulated cables/wires, and others.7.6 Strengths and Weaknesses of Regulatory AgenciesStrengths Agencies like the NBSM, DFTQC, and DDA are mandated by Acts and regulations to prepare productand process/system standards (both voluntary standards and technical regulations) and issuedirectives and guidelines, to serve as a regulatory authority to introduce product or system certificationschemes, to monitor and enforce implementation of technical regulations, and to perform conformityassessments; The NBSM and DFTQC both have sizable number of well-trained personnel and fairly well-equippedtesting laboratories for setting standards, for performing conformity assessments, and for monitoringcompliance with technical regulations; In recent years, the NBSM and DFTQC have benefited from a number of bilateral and multilateraltechnical assistance to enhance their capacities for standard development and harmonization,international accreditation of laboratories, product and system certification, and operation of TBT/SPS enquiry points. Significant efforts are underway to upgrade facilities and build human resourcecapacity at both NBSM and DFTQC.Weaknesses There are two critical dimensions in introducing a culture of standards and quality: infrastructuredevelopment and awareness creation. On both fronts, most of the Nepalese regulatory agencies areat a very early stage. A fully developed quality infrastructure (QI) in the areas of technical regulations,conformity assessment, quality, and metrology has yet to be developed; None of the government laboratories have been internationally accredited. Hence, their conformityassessment reports or product certification have yet to gain recognition in international markets; The role of government agencies like NBSM and DFTQC in facilitating trade has yet to be clarified.DFTQC and NBSM have been set up primarily as regulatory agencies; so, their facilitative role tends tobe ambiguous and conflicts of interest prevail. Accordingly, the business community tends to avoidtheir services. The NBSM is not proactive in standards-related services in terms of neither standardsformulation nor service delivery that can facilitate exports. This may be due to the lack of clear policydirectives or the lack of staff motivation; Several projects (SMTQ I and SMTQ II and EU-WTO Project, JICA) have been implemented between2005 and 2009 for enhancing the capacity of the NBSM and DFTQC in trade facilitation. However, thecapacity to tap those projects appears to be very low because of the slow decision-making processesand apparent low priority of these agencies in implementing these projects; Frequent changes in the parent Ministry’s structure and leadership and difficulties in retaining welltrained, professional staff in the related jobs are issues that have a negative impact on required capacitybuilding; The NBSM operates a product certification mark scheme. The Nepalese product certification is notaccepted by other countries, including India, with which Nepal has a sizable trade. A similar situationprevails with the DFTQC where their conformity assessment reports are yet to be recognized in Indiaand many other countries.9NBSM, 2010: home page http://www.nbsm.gov.np and personnel interviews and information collection174NEPAL TRADE INTEGRATION STRATEGY 2010BACKGROUND REPORT