SPEECH BY HON. WYCLIFFE AMBETSA OPARANYAH, EGH, MP, MINISTER OF STATE FOR PLANNING, NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND VISION 2030, DURING THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE 2ND ISO CERTIFIED FIRMS EXPO 2012 AT THE KICC.

The Chief Executive Officer, Apex Management Systems – Consultants Ltd,

The Managing Director, Kenya Bureau of Standards,

The Managing Director, Bureau Veritas,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me great pressure to join all of you gathered here as Exhibitors, Industry Leaders, members of the public and organizers to show case your products/services.

The theme of this exhibition, “Promoting business throughimplementation of ManagementStandards” aptly captures the key tenets of this country’s Vision 2030, which was launched on June 2008, and whose aim is to transform Kenya into a newly industrializing, middle income country providing a high quality of life to all her citizens by 2030.

This vision is anchored on three key pillars, namely; Economic which seeks to achieve 10% growth rate per annum by 2012 and sustain it thereafter; the Social which aims at building a just and cohesive society that enjoys equitable social development in a clean and secure environment and the political pillar whose objective is to nurture a democratic political system that is issue-based, people centred, results oriented and accountable to the public.

The three pillars are anchored on the foundations of macroeconomic stability; infrastructure development; Science, Technology and Innovation; Land Reforms, Human Resource Development; Security and Public Sector Reforms

Ladies and gentlemen: In order to achieve these, Private/ Public Sector initiatives and participation are paramount.

The Government launched Performance Contracting in 2005 as part of Result BasedManagement in the public service. Since then, we have audited Government ministries and parastatals, ranked them and publicly announced the ranking positions in an effort to ensure that service delivery to the public is enhanced. As part of this strategy all Government ministries and organizations are required to attain ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems Certification. I am pleased to note that the organizers of this event, Apex Management Systems – Consultants Ltd is one of the companies that offers training and consultancy in ISO standards and works closely with Kenya Bureau of Standards.

I am also pleased to note that Kenya Bureau of Standards and BureauVeritas which are ISO certifying bodies are exhibiting together with other ISO Certified organizations both from the public and private sector.

Ladies and gentlemen:As you are all aware, the world has become a global village, and we in Kenya wish to create a globally competitive and prosperous Nation with high quality of life for our citizens. To achieve this we need to provide our citizens and the world with high quality products and services. This can be best achieved by us bench marking these products/services  with the best in the world so that we compete favorably in the global economy, apart from satisfying the social and political aspects of Vision 2030.

All providers of products/services must realize that consumers have raised their expectations on the quality of products /services provided to them and every provider needs to remember this in their manufacturing and service provision. Organizations that do not provide quality products and services should not expect to gain the support of consumers.

Lastly, I would like to urge Kenyans to come to this Expo to meet the producers of goods and services that they consume and give their feedback on their quality.

Alongside this expo, I am informed that there are various workshops going on at the Intercontinental Hotel, all of which are ISO Standards related and i urge industry leaders to take advantage of this to gain and share new insights in implementation of management standards.

With those remarks it is now my great pleasure to declare the 2nd ISO CERTIFIED FIRMS’ EXPO 2012 officially open.

Thank you.