Officials from Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar recently attended aspecial meeting on goods accreditation in Bali, Indonesia, on thethreshold of the 26 th Meeting of ASEAN’s Consultative Committee onStandards and Quality (ACCSQ).

The March 17event, which was supported by the German National Metrology Institue,focused on developing the accreditation services in the quartet ofcountries, especially for those without an independent body establishedfor the task.

Requirements regarding the qualityof goods and services increase continuously as a result of the globaltrade liberalisation and increasing demands by consumers, companies andlegislators.

Objective testing, inspections andcertification are of great importance in various fields, such asenvironmental protection, food, health and renewable energy.

Accreditation is a key service required by industry and governmentauthorities to ensure quality checks are carried out by a competentconformity assessment body (CAB).

The CAB mustdemonstrate its ability to reliably accomplish tasks related to testing,certifying or inspection of a product, process, system or person.

Since 2009, the ASEAN bloc has supported ACCSQ and its related bodiesto fulfil product quality targets set by the ASEAN Economic Community.Efforts have focused on reducing technical barriers to trade byharmonising standards and enforcing technical rules that are essentialfor the bloc’ economic integration.

As one ofthe most important development partners of ASEAN, Germany is helpingthe member states narrow the development gap in Asia.-VNA