BSTI fallacious in their standards and quality

In the international market, with a diverse array of goods, the glittering displays of supermarkets, and the demand of millions of consumers worldwide, global compliance and international quality certification have now become indispensable everywhere.

Although World Standards Day is celebrated every year on October 14 to recall the importance of maintaining the proper quality of goods and following global standards, the real picture in Bangladesh is entirely different. In many cases, the quality certificates of the national standards regulatory body, the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI), do not have direct international recognition, and due to the lack of modern infrastructure, Bangladesh's overall product exports to the global market are being severely hampered.

It is not only the quality control of export goods. BSTI is also struggling to control proper quality in the domestic market. BSTI's main crisis in quality control is the shortage of laboratories and manpower at the upazila level, as a result of which it is becoming difficult to prevent the spread of counterfeit products. Alongside this, the lengthy testing process, the lack of secret monitoring after CM licensing, the absence of a digital tracking system, and market management relying only on sudden mobile court operations are not being able to ensure sustainable safe products.

According to trade and economic analysts, in this era of a free-market economy and globalization, locally approving a product is not enough; that approval must be acceptable in the global market. Since in many cases that is not possible, Bangladesh is unable to utilize its full potential in any sector, from ready-made garments, leather goods, and processed food to the rapidly growing trillion-dollar global halal product market.

Especially in the global market for emerging halal products, there is no agreement between any recognized single authority in the country and Malaysia's Jakim, the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC), or the GCC Accreditation Center of the Middle East. As a result, certificates issued by BSTI or the Islamic Foundation are not directly accepted in many countries. Entrepreneurs are forced to obtain test and quality certificates from foreign third-party agencies, wasting huge amounts of money and time. As a result, the production cost of goods increases abnormally, and the competitive capacity of Bangladeshi products in the global market decreases.

Not only halal products, but in the case of overall quality control, BSTI's traditional methods and lack of international recognition are putting the entire export sector under challenge. Although BSTI, as an autonomous institution established in the country in 1985, made quality standards mandatory for more than 191 daily necessities including food, cosmetics, construction materials, and electronics, their working methods and laboratory capacity are far behind international standards. Entrepreneurs allege that they have to run around for months to get test reports from the laboratory, which slows down the pace of conducting business. Again, after a CM license is issued once, there is a massive shortage of regular secret monitoring in the market or at the factory. Due to the lack of adequate laboratories outside Dhaka, on one hand the dominance of low-quality products is increasing within the country, and on the other hand, distrust is being created in the international market regarding the overall quality of domestic products. In such a situation, experts are calling for overhauling BSTI to face the global challenges of the international market. Inspired by the core spirit of World Standards Day, which began on October 14, 1946, in London and has been observed since 1970, using modern technology like the European Union or the United States is now the demand of the time. This year, the main theme of the 57th World Standards Day has been set as, "A Shared Vision for a Better World – Affordable and Clean Energy."

However, BSTI says that as a national standardization body, it has already formulated 4,631 standards (BDS), among which meeting the standards for 191 daily necessities is mandatory. To achieve SDG-7, the organization has formulated 79 special standards for solar panels and batteries to protect solar power systems, and has established an advanced "Sun Simulator" laboratory with German technology. Besides this, online e-BSTI services, digital QR code tracking, maintaining international ISO/IEC standards, and conducting regular mobile courts across the country to prevent food adulteration are among its major successes. According to Dr. Khandaker Golam Moazzem, Research Director of the research organization Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD), "Along with the expansion of the industrial sector, the structural capacity of the standards regulatory body must also be increased. If there are no world-class modern laboratories at the divisional and district levels, producers outside Dhaka will suffer harassment, and consumers will also be forced to use substandard products. It is urgent to transform BSTI into an autonomous, science-based, and fully international-standard organization." Speaking about the suffering of businessmen and the increase in production costs, FBCCI Administrator Fazlul Haque said that businessmen pay regular license fees and revenue, but they have to wait a long time to get laboratory test reports, which increases their production costs. Alongside digitalizing BSTI's processes one hundred percent, attention must be paid to ensuring that honest businessmen do not become victims of harassment.