ISLAMABAD, April 20: The government has decided to upgrade 11 laboratories for ensuring quality and standards of Pakistani products to compete in international markets.

This was decided in a meeting of the task force on quality and standards here on Tuesday. The meeting was attended among others by Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan and Industries and Production Minister Liaquat Ali Jatoi.

It was decided that the laboratories would be upgraded with the help of China and the United States. The meeting was informed that at present 15,000 international standards have been adopted, out of which 2,000 were Pakistan's standards and 46 standards were mandatory.

It was also informed that a mega project of Rs1.2 billion had already been approved for testing pharmaceutical products, leather products and textile products.

The commerce and industries ministers informed the meeting that in the present competitive trading environment, products were accepted in the international markets on the basis of good quality.

Quality was the pre-requisite for successful market access and for achieving continued customer satisfaction. Maintaining quality and standard was of paramount importance for Pakistan to remain in the international markets.

Mr Khan informed the meeting that non-tariff barriers in the form of standards, technical regulations, sanitary and phyto- sanitary measures and conformity assessment procedures were the ones to be tackled effectively in order to stay in the international export market.

He further said: "Non-tariff barriers will be the biggest challenge for Pakistan's exports for which we need to improve the quality and produce the goods according to the international standards.

To achieve the required standards, the Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) has already been established to ensure quality products. The PSQCA has already granted ISO 9000 certificates to 3,000 companies.