The adoption of the ISO 9001 certification in Malta has increased from three in 1993 to well over 300 this year.

In fact, Malta has one of the highest rates worldwide of its labour force employed in ISO 9001 certified organisations, the Minister for Competitiveness and Communications, Censu Galea said yesterday.

He was speaking during the presentation of ISO 9001 certificates to three SMEs.

He said that as from last May, when Malta joined the EU, an enormous opportunity opened up for Maltese manufacturers and service providers, most of whom are SMEs. Although trade barriers had to disappear as from that day it was a known fact that organisations certified to ISO 9001 standards had a better chance of penetrating markets and selling their products or services in the 450 million-strong European market.

But unfortunately, until recently, small and micro enterprises in Malta were at a disadvantage when compared with similar European enterprises, Mr Galea said. It was prohibitive for some of them to get certified due to the fact that no local certification body existed. In order to remedy this situation and in support of small and micro enterprises, the Malta Standards Authority started providing ISO 9001 certification starting from September 2004, he added.

ISO 9001 is a standard for quality management systems that is accepted globally. It provides quality assurance for customers purchasing products or services and as such it has become an international reference in business-to-business dealings.

Businesses need to know the standard of the quality management systems of potential business partners, Mr Galea said.