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The Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) on Wednesday presented Qualiplast Limited, producers of plastic products, with the ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management Systems Certification. Achieving ISO 9001:2008 Quality Management System Certification implies that Qualiplast Limited uses competent staff, well maintained and appropriate equipment, reliable processes and systems to produce plastic packaging materials that are accepted internationally. Mr Kofi Anagetey, Deputy Director of Commercial Service, lauded Qualiplast for its achievement as one of the few companies in the country to achieve such a feat. He said GSA provided two kinds of certification which were the Product Certification and Management Systems Certification. �Production Certification involves the assessment of a product against the requirements of the relevant product standards and certifying that the products conforms or otherwise to the relevant standard�. �In Systems Certification, a management system of an organisation is assessed against the requirements of the relevant international standards and certifying that the systems conforms or otherwise to international standards.� Mr Anagetey said international buyers were now not only interested in the quality of the product, but also the assurance that a supplier had a system capable of supplying goods and services of consistent quality. �Achieving ISO 9001:2008 Certification therefore, makes a company�s product competitive on the international markets.� Mr. Anagetey urged all companies operating in the country to visit GSA for the Systems Certification Services as it was affordable and competitive. Mr Fares Akl, Managing Director of Qualiplast Limited, said that since its inception in 1973, the company had worked towards achieving internationally recognised standards �applying the principle of ISO Quality Management System in the plastic sector has been a challenge, seemed at certain times an impossible task, but it has been worthwhile the challenge�. He said Qualiplast Limited as a member of the Institute of Packaging Ghana (IOPG), has made conscious efforts to ensure its products were well packaged to the satisfaction of customers. Mr Akl said Qualiplast would work to pursue other internationally recognised standards such as the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System and the Occupational Health and Safety Management System.