Sharing insights with our New Caledonian neighbours
This month we met with a delegation from New Caledonia who were visiting to learn more about New Zealand’s conformance and standardisation systems and process.
New Caledonian officials from Department of Purchasing, Assets and Resources, the Pacific Islands Standards Committee and Embassy of France met with officials from Standards New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment’s Occupational Regulation Team and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
New Caledonia, are hosting this year’s 45th Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC) and 5th Pacific Islands Standards Committee (PISC) forums in late May, when we will be presenting on some of the key projects helping large change initiatives across New Zealand.
What are PASC and PISC?
The PASC is an independent and voluntary organisation of 26 Pacific Rim National Standards Bodies, who together aim to support the region’s engagement in the international standardisation system for the advancement of economic, societal, and environmental well-being. PASC also has the objective of giving the Pacific region a strong and influential voice and perspective at ISO to complement that of a north American and European one.
The PISC is an independent and voluntary organisation of 18 Pacific Rim Nation countries, including The Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Caledonia, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, New Zealand and Australia.
Both PASC and PISC look to support our developing Pacific nation neighbours to develop and adopt standards, particularly those related to building and construction standards and those that support trade and market access. PISC and PASC also look to support developing Pacific nations to grow their broader conformance infrastructure, systems, processes, and institutions which includes standardisation, metrology and conformance capability and expertise. There’s a strong information, knowledge and expertise sharing aspect to these groups and forums.
Building and trade
Examples of where standards play a role were discussed including timber importation to New Caledonia from NZ and how a standardisation approach to manufacturing and food safety associated with cassava production can support export market opportunities for a number of island nations.
National Manager Standards New Zealand Malcolm MacMillan met with Cécilia Madeleine, Representative of New Caledonia Government, NZ Embassy of France, and Djamil Abdelaziz, Director, Department of Purchasing, Assets and Resources & Chair of the Pacific Islands Standards Committee to discuss how Standards New Zealand operates, supporting both government regulators and industry. They were joined by representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and MBIE Occupational Regulation to share insights into New Zealand’s experience with the licensed building practitioner scheme, how it was received and embraced over time by industry, what qualifications, trades, and license classes we had, how competency and disciplinary matters were managed, and prior experience assessed, and some of the ongoing challenges and successes with the scheme. New Caledonia have recently regulated their building trades and are keen to learn from our experiences.
Sharing the experiences, learnings and successes with our international neighbours reflects the collaborative strengths that lie at the heart of international standards. When we can all work together to agreed practices and standards, all countries are better off.
Delegation from New Caledonia and French Embassy with MBIE staff
In the photo (left to right):
- Katrina Murison, Lead Adviser Infrastructure, Development Economy and Prosperity Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade
- Malcolm MacMillan National Manager Standards NZ, MBIE
- Cécilia Madeleine, Representative of New Caledonia Government, NZ Embassy of France
- Djamil Abdelaziz, Director, Department of Purchasing, Assets and Resources & Chair of the Pacific Islands Standards Committee
- Sanjai Raj, General Manager Market Integrity, MBIE
- Duncan O’Conner, National Manager Occupational Regulation, MBIE