Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 11, 2021 (SKNIS): Jermine Mike, Head of Standards at St. Kitts and Nevis Bureau of Standards, said that the organization continues to collaborate effectively with public and private stakeholders before the adoption of any standard.
“We believe in collaboration especially because we are trying to do good practices. So, when it comes to standards, we always take a national approach, that means we take entities from St. Kitts and from Nevis as well,” said Mr. Mike, during his August 11 appearance on Working for You. “Every time we are trying to adopt standards we always put out information to get these people as stakeholders, not just the public but the private sector where it will be most impacted by such a standard if any regulation was to come out of this.”
Mr. Mike said that it is important to have the private sector on board because its opinions matter.
“We always hope and pray that the private sector would engage or take more of an interest because once that standard is adopted any government agency can [say] the Bureau of Standards just adopted this in the environment so can we regulate anything from this standard,” he said. “And then all of a sudden you become interested because it is going to impact your bottom line. So, we always express collaboration, and we always go out to meet them halfway as well.”
He noted that the Bureau of Standards adopted a standard for beaches and the stakeholders involved were the Ministries of Tourism, Education and Environment, the St. Kitts Tourism Authority, St. Kitts Sea Turtle Monitoring Group, as well as other entities from the public and private sectors.
St. Kitts and Nevis Bureau of Standards (SKNBS) was officially established on March 08, 1999, under the National Bureau of Standards Act No 7 of 1999 now the National Bureau of Standards Act, Cap. 23.15. SKNBS has the major responsibility of protecting the environment, health and safety of consumers. Its activities also focus on preparing, promoting, and generally adopting standards on a national, regional or international basis relating to structures, commodities, materials, articles, and other things offered to the public commercially, hence promoting standardization, quality assurance, and simplification in industry and commerce. -30-
