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LAST YEAR'S  OUTCRY over hygiene during the Sars outbreak led to greater health awareness, including hygiene control and food safety.

Partly in response to this, HKQAA executive director Chan Siu-kam    believes it is time for Hong Kong to develop its own standards.

'In Hong Kong we always say we follow other people's standards. That was valid when Hong Kong was purely export-led, because we existed to serve customers elsewhere. Now, with the restructuring of the economy in Hong Kong, we are serving more local customers, and local customers have their  unique requirements which are not covered by international standards,' Mr Chan said.

'As an intermediate step, I think we need to look at areas which are not covered by ISO, but which require quality improvement, and the HKQAA has to fill that particular gap.'

The agency has developed a hygiene control scheme that will be launched soon.

HKQAA director of business development Angela Lock  said the scheme was intended to encourage public service providers to look into controlling risks associated with hygiene and provide community assurance.

'As time changes and the business environment changes, there are a lot of local business-specific or community-specific needs,' she said. 'As such, we follow closely the pulse of the local community.'

The agency  also hopes to introduce schemes to help companies improve their management systems  - such as the HKQAA 5S Scheme, which will be launched soon.

The scheme will target companies not ready for fully fledged ISO 9000 certification. It will provide an entry point for good operational-level management, which eventually could act as a stepping stone to something better.



Sars experience spurs development of hygiene control standards