The NMI has the prime responsibility of ensuring that any measurement made in a country can be traced to the International System of Units (the SI) via international standards, thereby helping to facilitate acceptance of products, processes, measurements and testing in the local and foreign markets.
This is done through the establishment and maintenance of national measurement standards that are either primary (i.e. fundamental scientific realizations that have been subject to international comparisons) or national measurement standards traceably calibrated to primary measurement standards held by another NMI.
These national measurement standards are then utilised to calibrate the working standards of calibration laboratories, legal metrology departments and others in order to complete the traceability chain right down to the users of measuring equipment.
In the past these measurement standards dealt only with physical quantities such as mass, temperature, length, pressure and the like, but now chemical metrology has become an important part of the NMI activities, and one that even developing countries need to consider seriously.
Together, this can be very expensive; in addition to the expensive equipment, appropriate facilities with sophisticated air-conditioning and uninterrupted power supply, as well highly skilled staff and adequate and continuous government financing, have to be available.
This makes the establishment of an NMI a very challenging prospect for any developing country, but one that cannot be ignored.

INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION
It is important that the NMI becomes an active member of the BIPM and relevant regional metrology organisations (e.g. AFRIMETS, APMP, COOMET, EUROMET, and SIM). It is through these liaisons that the country’s measurement system will gain international recognition. The list of its Calibration and Measurement Capabilities (CMCs) needs to be recognised through key comparisons and peer evaluations, and thereafter listed in the key comparison database (KCDB)13 managed by the BIPM. Without such CMC entries, the country’s industry will find it difficult in the long run to gain acceptance of measurement results in the international markets.