The Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy organised on 23 June 2016 in Rabat under the chairmanship of Ms Echihabi Latifa, Secretary General of the Ministry, the award ceremony for the 18th National Quality Award and the 12th Safety at Work Award.

The aim of this competition is to reward and pay tribute to the companies who distinguished themselves through their excellent quality and safety initiatives, to recognise their performance and to acknowledge the efforts they are making as part of a continuous improvement process.

The competition also seeks to encourage more companies to place quality and safety at work at the heart of their strategy and to raise their awareness about the importance of a modern management approach for their competitiveness.

"Supporting companies in committing to this approach is a priority", stated Ms Echihabi Latifa, who also stressed that “the Ministry spares no effort in promoting quality and safety in companies”, citing in this regard the consolidation of the Moroccan standardisation background now counting about 12,500 standards, the strengthening of the system of certification and accreditation of conformity assessment bodies as well as the overhaul of the system controlling the import of industrial products.

To further strengthen this dynamic, enhancing the competitiveness of the productive fabric was made a flagship component of the Industrial Acceleration Plan which is fundamentally based on structuring industrial sectors into efficient ecosystems and creating an environment that would support and enhance the competitiveness of ecosystem companies, particularly through the availability of a qualified workforce working in healthy and safe conditions, in line with international standards of quality, health and safety at work and respect of the environment.

The theme of the 18th National Quality Award and the 12th Safety Award was “knowledge management strengthens performance”, hence taking into account the importance of knowledge management with regards to the development of the human and intellectual capital of companies.

It should be recalled that the National Quality Award and the National Safety Award were organised as part of the partnership between the Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and the Digital Economy, the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs, the Moroccan Union for Quality (UMAQ) and the Interbranch Organisation for Prevention and Safety (GIPSI).