The Honourable Minister of Trade for Montserrat Claude Hogan is supporting CARICOM perspectives and inputs to decisions at the 21st General Assembly of the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) this week in Peru.
The meetings scheduled from September 3-9, 2016 in Arequipa, Peru bring together accreditation bodies in the Americas and other organizations interested in conformity assessment.
Conformity assessments or accreditation are important for medical schools, medical students being accredited as doctors, laboratory functions, CXC exam certificates, etc.
Minister Hogan has been one of the drivers for CARICOM’s push to develop standards and accreditation across the region. In his contributions, he is expected to reiterate the message that standards and accreditation matter as they help to create economy and protect consumers.
“You need to trade to make money. To trade you need institutions systems and organisation of many types or at least the types in which you have a comparative and competitive advantage,” the minister responsible for Trade told Discover Montserrat.
The Government of Montserrat is in the process of ratifying the revised Agreement of the Caribbean Cooperation Accreditation Scheme as a member of CROSQ, the Caribbean Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality.
CROSQ is an affiliated member of the IAAC, which is the governing body for Accreditation in the Americas Region.
