Exporters urged to be innovative
Mr Wolfgang Wiegel, the Export Quality Management Systems Specialist, has urged Ghanaian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be more innovative to meet the standards and demands of globally-oriented markets.
He challenged exporters to pay more attention to product quality and design to be more competitive in the world market to distinguish their products on the foreign markets.
Mr Wiegel said this in Accra at the opening of a seminar on: Improving the Capacities of Ghana-based Exporting Companies, to overcome barriers to trade in regional and international markets in non-traditional export sector.
The Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Excellence (CLSCE), in collaboration with the ACP European Union Technical Barriers to Trade, is implementing a project titled: “Strengthening the Competitiveness of Ghana-Based Exporters through Effective Export Quality Management Systems”.
The project focused on promoting the adoption of international standards among exporting companies in selected sectors through training of trainers, coaching, mentoring and consulting.
He said many businesses had not been performing because they had failed to understand and appreciate the modern trend of business where many firms were going into integration and conglomeration.
Mr Wiegel said it was important that Ghanaian businesses shifted from depending on traditional export to develop competitive non-traditional export products that would meet fierce competition on the global market.
He said the country’s fortunes would be significantly enriched when SMEs successfully built and owned internationally competitive brands.
He called for the establishment of joint ventures and partnerships with foreign companies as a great way to gain access to skills, resources and finance when entering into a new market, since success remain on the extent to which companies reduce cost and improve product quality and service delivery.
Mr Wiegel said companies must work at dealing with sophisticated and demanding markets by strictly observing international standards and other regulations.
Mr Emmanuel Turkson, the Managing Director of CLSCE, said the Center, in partnership with international and corporate partners, offered training courses on professional certification and supply chain management.
The organization collaborates with government, academia and corporate institutions to promote and develop supply chain management in the country to meet world acceptable standards and best practices.
Source: GNA