Most countries have either used the metric system for many years, or have adopted the metric system within the last 30 or 40 years. Nearly every country in the world has taken steps to replace traditional measurements. Just as English has become the global language of commerce, the metric system has become the global language of measurement. Thus the phrase heard more and more:

"Speak in English, and Measure in Metric."

While the task before us is a challenge, we can most certainly look forward to the process of upgrading to the metric system. Simply put, metrication describes a smooth and economical upgrade to the metric system. Metrication is the direct transition process that helps you to quickly, efficiently, easily, and relatively cheaply upgrade from various old pre-metric measuring methods to the modern metric system.

The implementation of the metric conversion programme in Saint Lucia is currently ongoing, bearing in mind the time for goods entering the European Market to be in metric units only is December 2009. What is required with almost immediate effect is the broad public sector and privately owned enterprises to have converted to the use of the metric units. This includes the relatively small business and traditional domestic agricultural sectors.

The Saint Lucian Metrication Board and its Secretariat are currently charged with the responsibility of overseeing the country's conversion to the metric (SI) system of units.  A process which may seem to the on-looker as a simple matter of communicating in units of measures such as the kilogram instead of the pound, metres instead of the yard, kilometres to instead of miles (and calculations of mileage), hectares as opposed to acres, as well as a change from gallons to litres, among others. However its seeming simplicity is a gross underestimation of the task before the Metrication Board.

We may realize that the teaching of metric units in schools' curriculum was introduced several years ago; nonetheless the individual in their everyday living, experience a different culture once out in the working arena. The piece of cloth is still sold in the yard, the traveling units for traveling officers are still in miles, the fish at the market still sold in pounds, gasoline pump sales are still in gallons and cooking gas in pounds, and the list goes on.  

In order to meet certain major objectives the Board must now expeditiously assist a major mind-set change, by ensuring business management practices incorporate re-labelled packages, and re-designed machinery and skills, in order to meet international trading requirements.  Then beyond the life of the Board, the responsibility for continuing the programme's monitoring and implementation passes to the Saint Lucia Bureau of Standards.

Since the 1970s metric units were introduced into the curriculum of the primary and secondary school systems. The Common Entrance and CXC examinations syllabi already use metric units.  Similarly, in due course petroleum products such as gasoline pump sales will be sold in litres and cooking gas in kilograms, while road signage, including distance signs will appear in kilometres and speed limit signs in kilometres per hour. At the ports and airports wharfage and cargo rates should also be in metric units; as should be police, weather and other public sector agencies' reports and statistics. Government procurement documentation e.g. for post office services, and construction industry tenders, will additionally be required in metric.

Most locally packaged goods and export commodities, traditional and non-traditional, will have to be labelled in metric units only, although USA labelling regulations pose a constraint with their requirement for the use of dual units on goods exported to that country.

One of the most remarkable things about the metric system is that, according to Pat Naughtin (a metrication expert), it is very successful. He has observed that:

No individual, no group, no company, no industry, and no nation,
after using the metric system for some time,
has ever gone back to using old pre-metric measures.

In the interim here are some noteworthy conversions, to get you started:

For More Information contact your local Metrication Secretariat at telephone (758) 452-1541 or email: metcentre@candw.lc.

Submitted by Roycelyn St. Hill Howell (Business Development Officer, SEDU, Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Consumer Affairs)