GSO Celebrates the World Standards Day 2023
The GCC Standardization Organization for the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf (GSO) joins similar bodies and organizations in the countries of the world in celebrating the 53rd World Standards Day, which falls on the 14 of October of each year.
In his speech on this occasion, His Excellency Mr. Saud bin Nasser Al-Khusaibi, President of GSO indicated that on 14 October of each year, members of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) celebrate World Standards Day, as an important way to pay tribute to the joint efforts of thousands of experts around the world who work on studies, research and experiments to come up with agreed upon documents that are published as international standards.
He added that the celebration this year comes under the theme “Standards and Sustainable Development Goals, our shared vision for a better world”, which is the theme for the past two years, and was chosen for the third time to emphasize the importance of standards and their connection to sustainable development goals, and to emphasize the pivotal role of sustainable development in meeting the needs of present days.
His Excellency stated that the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seek to address negative social phenomena, develop a sustainable economy, and slow the rate of climate change, are highly ambitious. Reaching them will require the cooperation of many partners from the public and private sectors, and the use of all available tools, including international standards, technical regulations, and conformity assessment procedures.
His Excellency President of GSO said that each of Sustainable Development Goal represents an urgent call to action, and achieving these goals requires a collective efforts, for peace, prosperity and well-being of people and planet; and this year’s celebration focuses on the third goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, which is to ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all, as having access to quality health care is a human right and necessary for sustainable development.
He explained that GSO, in cooperation with the national standardization bodies of member states and its partners from relevant international and regional organizations, work to develop and adopt many international standards in the fields of health care and quality of life. GSO has issued up to date about 27,000 Gulf standards and technical regulations for various sectors, products and services, including those relating to health care and quality of life.
He added that international standards, regional and national standards, help ensure the security of health systems, as well as protect patient privacy, facilitate the research and development process in adopting digital health technologies, as well as manufacture and maintenance of sophisticated and safe health care devices and systems, besides their contribution in manufacturing and providing for reliable medical devices, services and health systems that are available to a wide segment of the population of the world, in addition to providing the basis for developing policies and effective regulation that encourage cooperation in improving health care outcomes.
At the conclusion of his speech, Al-Khusaibi praised the great efforts exerted by the international, regional, and national organizations in the field of standardization.
He also extended his thanks and gratitude to all employees of GSO, the national standardization bodies in member states, regional and international organizations, and all those who support the organization and standardization in all its activities and fields.
It is worthwhile mentioning that 14 October coincides with the anniversary of establishing the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in 1947.
World Standards Day is celebrated annually by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The three organizations issue annually a joint speech on this occasion to shed light on one of the issues related to standardization, joined by various standardization bodies in countries of the world in this celebration.
