KARACHI, Jan 11: As many as 3,000 companies have acquired ISO-9000 quality certificates in which 80 per cent of them are export-oriented from the textile related sectors.

Around two dozen companies have acquired ISO-14000 certificates relating to environmental concerns.

Director General, Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNCA), Ministry of Science and Technology, Abdul Rasheed told Dawn that Pakistani companies took at least three and a half years to accomplish these numbers which are still below as compared to over 7,000 companies in India alone.

To a query whether these certificates had played any role in boosting country’s exports, he said, he has conducted a survey recently and an average 10 to 40 per cent improvement in exports has been recorded in the last three years. He said no foreign buyers can now raise any objections if the company has got the quality certification.

After making much headway in these two ISO standards, local industries will now have to gear up efforts for conforming to ISO-17025 Lab Management Standards in order to remain competitive in the global markets. “These standards have already implemented all over the world and Pakistan has now to follow it immediately,” he added.

He said the government has hired two consultants from the United Kingdom for providing guidelines to manufacturers and exporters for lab certification.

It is now time that local exporters should conform to the product and management quality standards by seeking laboratory accreditation in order to remain active in the international markets, Rasheed said.

He said PNCA has also launched a quality crash awareness programme and a laboratory accreditation scheme for the exporters and manufacturers so as to comply with the demand of foreign buyers.

Presently over a dozen multinational companies are operating in Pakistan by issuing ISO-9000 and ISO-14000 certificates.

Abdul Rasheed said that the PNCA has recently awarded accreditation to two companies — Moody and BVQI — enabling them to issue these certificates and use the PNCA logo. Besides, four more companies have applied to the PNCA.