New accreditation scheme being developed to ensure local farms produce pesticide-free vegetables

OTHER NEW STANDARDS, ACCREDITATION PROGRAMMES

Ms Choy mentioned regardless of the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, each the Singapore Standards Council (SSC) and the SAC continued to develop new requirements and accreditation programmes to assist the wants of local industries final 12 months .

These have been associated to making certain provide chain visibility, operational transparency, sustainable enterprise progress and in addition enterprise resilience towards future disruptions – key challenges that have been introduced to the fore amid the pandemic, she added.

In the final monetary 12 months, the SSC developed and reviewed 142 requirements, impacting greater than 4,400 organisations, its chairman Robert Chew mentioned on the on-line briefing.

Forty-eight of those requirements are new, akin to the rules on clear and inexperienced city farms, to assist construct enterprise capabilities, resilience and seize alternatives in rising sectors, he added.

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For occasion, the council supplied technical reference – provisional requirements that cowl trade trials – on secure occasion administration practices for the MICE and occasions trade, in addition to a brand new nationwide customary that ensures the efficient roll-out of thermal imagers in settings akin to buying malls for temperature screening.

On the opposite hand, the SAC issued 33 new accreditation certificates, whereas reviewing 116 accreditations final 12 months.

Moving ahead, the councils will develop extra requirements and accreditation programmes to assist digitalisation, sustainability and resilience of local companies, as a part of a five-year roadmap first introduced final 12 months.

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Ms Choy mentioned the significance of high quality and requirements within the present enterprise surroundings is “widely acknowledged”.

“The momentum was set during COVID-19 when SMEs recognised the importance of business resilience and quickly adopted business continuity plans. Consumers wanted to be assured that the surgical mask that they used were effective against the virus and wanted masks that were certified to meet international standards,” she advised reporters.

“So for the next five years, we will continue to build on this momentum.”

For instance within the space of digitalisation, whereas digital options have proved to be a dependable instrument throughout the pandemic, there stays challenges like knowledge privateness and cybersecurity points.

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“So standards and accreditation programmes can help to ensure the baseline safety and quality of these solutions,” mentioned Ms Choy.