The South African Quality Institute (SAQI), represented by the organisation’s managing director and Vice Chair of the Services SETA Quality Chamber Board, Paul Harding, and SAQI director, Pat Mclaren from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology recently attended the 7th China Shanghai International Symposium on Quality.
The need to promote Quality awareness amongst the citizens of South Africa and China and to establish standards and certification within all organisations, irrespective of its size, and especially those who trade across borders, was identified as a shared objective between SAQI and its Chinese equivalent, AQSIQ. The Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ) of the People’s Republic of China had earlier visited SAQI in Pretoria as part of an international study tour on Quality.
“With China’s high levels of global trade, the need to establish Quality principles and standards in China is an urgent priority for them,” Harding said. The discussions in Pretoria had revolved around the strategies SAQI uses to market and promote quality management and quality awareness across the various sectors of the South African economy. The successful exchange was reported to the China Association for Quality which subsequently invited the MD of SAQI as a keynote speaker to the 7th China Shanghai International Symposium on Quality.
The theme of the conference was “A Quality Mission to face Evolving Challenges”, while SAQI’s conference paper, delivered by Harding, was entitled “Service Standardization and Harmonization of Society: A South African perspective”.
Caption:
During September Mr. Sun Bo (centre) and his delegation from the People’s Republic of China was hosted by SAQI at their offices on the CSIR campus in Pretoria. He is flanked by the SAQI MD Paul Harding on the left and SAQI associate Mr. Ed van den Heever from Business Assessment Services on the right.
(Source: Media release issued by the South African Quality Institute, Pretoria, www.saqi.co.za, (012) 349 5006) |
