Abuja, 28 October, 2016 – Within its specific objective 2, “Private sector has access to strategically prioritized and harmonized standards for facilitated regional and international trade”, one of the important activities of the WAQSP is to support the organization of standards harmonisation initiated since 2013 with ECOSHAM.

In the framework of the harmonisation of the standards in the region, within ECOSHAM, 6 Technical Harmonization Committees (THC) have been set up. Among them the THC6 is in charge of the harmonization of standards in the field of Tourism. Draft standards have been prepared by the technical secretariat of the THC6 and have been circulated to the country (Enquiry Stage) in order to gather the comments.

According to ECOSHAM procedures a meeting of the THC is necessary at this stage to review the comments received in order to update the draft standards and the review of the 2017 THC6 programme. Thus, a meeting is scheduled on the 1st to 3rd of November 2016, in Banjul at November Paradise suites Hotel, Gambia.

It will be organized according to ECOSHAM procedures. The Chairman of THC6 will lead the discussions assisted by the Technical Secretariat of the Committee. Each draft standards and the comments gathered from the Enquiry will be presented by the Technical Secretariat, followed by discussions for adoption. The programme will be also presented, discussed and adopted.

At the end of this meeting, it is expected that the members of THC6 will agree on the changes to draft Harmonized Standards by taking into account all the comments received from the enquiry.

A final report of the meeting and a reviewed programme will be adopted.