51st meeting of ACCSQ: Reducing technical barriers, harmonizing standards in ASEAN
From 8 to 12/ 7/2019, the 51st meeting of ACCSQ and related meetings were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Representatives of the ASEAN Standardization Agency attended the meeting with the alternate governance of ACCSQ President – Mr. Chaiyavat Tangkrockolan, representative of The Thai Industrial Standards Institute (TISI). At the meeting, Ms. Vu Thi Tu Quyen, Deputy Director in charge of International Cooperation Department, STAMEQ (Ministry of Science and Technology) participated in the delegation as the Vice President of ACCSQ.
The Vietnamese delegation consisted of representatives of units under the STAMEQ, Ministry of Construction and Ministry of Transport to attend the Conference.
ACCSQ Presidium managed the Conference.
Ms. Fadilah Baharin, Malaysian Director General of Standards delivered the opening remarks of the Conference. In the speech, she emphasized that ACCSQ had grown into an organization with 12 working groups and many agencies managing products in ASEAN countries. ACCSQ also constantly updated and reviewed issues related to standards and conformity assessment in new areas such as digital commerce, e-commerce, smart urban areas, sustainable development goals of the United Nations, aging economy, etc.
The conference was attended by representatives of ASEAN standardization bodies
Ms. Fadilah also called on ACCSQ to further promote its role and mission in reducing technical barriers to trade through harmonization of standards, mutual recognition agreements and harmonization of management regulations to facilitate further trade development.
ASEAN member countries reviewed the results of implementing key tasks of ACCSQ in the first half of 2019 and proposed implementation plans in the second half of this year and 2020. In 2019, ASEAN member countries focused on discussing the roadmap to the ASEAN signing of MRA for type approval with automotive products, agreeing on the content of the MRA for construction materials, agreeing on the content of the ASEAN Agreement in the field of traditional medicine and ASEAN Agreement on functional foods of ASEAN, which is about to sign in 2020.
In the same event, relevant meetings would be held, including: Reviewing the content of ASEAN’s revised Framework Agreement on Mutual Recognition and ACCSQ Meeting with ISO and US Dialogue Partners.
