GSO participates in the 59th meeting of the Arab Supreme Committee for Standardization in Rabat
The GCC Standardization Organization participates in the 59th meeting of the Arab Supreme Committee for Standardization in Rabat
The GCC Standardization Organization (GSO) participated in the 59th meeting of the Arab Supreme Committee for Standardization, of the Arab Organization for Industrial Development, Standardization and Mining (AIDSMO), which was held at the Organization’s headquarters in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco, during 29 February – 1 March 2024, with the participation of member states of AIDSMO, and a number of regional and international organizations.
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan chaired the meeting, assuming chairmanship from the Republic of Yemen. The meeting was opened by His Excellency Engineer Adel Saqr Al-Saqr, Director General of AIDSMO, who welcomed the participants and expressed his thanks and appreciation to the member states, praising the efforts of the Arab standardization bodies and the Arab Supreme Committee for Standardization for its fruitful cooperation with the AIDSMO. His Excellency Engineer Al-Saqr also praised the efforts of GSO in enhancing cooperation with the AIDSMO, and in supporting the standardization and quality system in the Arab region.
His Excellency stressed the importance of standardization activity as one of the strategic pillars supporting Arab economies, pointing out that the success of this activity depends on the extent to which the standards meet the requirements of Arab markets, which is what AIDSMO pursuing through the Arab standards technical committees preparing standards to overcome the technical barriers that are in fact remain more complex than the existing customs barriers between Arab countries.
In his speech, His Excellency the President of GSO, Saud bin Nasser Al-Khusaibi, stressed the importance of consolidating cooperation between GSO and AIDSMO and raise it to the level of strategic partnership in the various fields of standardization, in light of a unified vision that ensures unifying efforts and avoiding their duplication, investing resources in a rational way, and benefiting from successful experiences of both sides with a view to implement them, and to build the technical capabilities of both sides to enable them carrying out their work in more professional way.
Affirming that the requirements of joint Arab action in the field of standardization and quality infrastructure make it imperative to work more effectivelh to achieve strategic integration in many pressing issues of common concern, most importantly, harmonizing the vision and strategic plan to achieve the aspirations and priorities of member states, and unifying stances on many of the issues raised by regional and international arena; including climate change, sustainable development goals, and recently to legislation related to carbon border, to ensure the interests of member states and serve their legitimate directions and goals, and also in the field of standards, harmonization of technical committees, electronic linking, and enhancing the participation of stakeholders in developing Gulf standards and technical regulations, allowing all relevant sectors to actively participate in the process of issuing Gulf standards and commenting on them, and submitting proposals that contribute to their implementation, as well as the joint work to unify the conformity system and develop its tools in the areas of inspection, testing, market surveillance and notification.
His Excellency the President of GSO also highlighted the importance of joint work to develop a unified Arab Islamic system for Halal, as an urgent necessity at the national, regional, and international levels, that takes into account the technical and Fikh related dimensions, monitoring the current situation, identifying challenges and studying the future trends, including developing Arab standards for Halal to be adopted internationally. His Excellency added that capacity building is one of the most important strategic opportunities in which cooperation must be doubled, whether through identifying and analyzing training needs, developing, and implementing training plans, or in terms of capitalizing on relations between the two sides at the regional and international levels to provide specialized experts in all fields.
During the meeting, Engineer Adel Al-Sadr presented the Shield of AIDSMO to His Excellency Mr. Saud bin Nasser Al-Khusaibi, President of GSO, as a token of his recognized efforts and contribution to supporting the standardization and quality system in the Arab region during his presidency of GSO, and to His Excellency Engineer Nawaf Ibrahim Al-Mana – Chairman of the Committee to Follow Up the Implementation of the Arab Strategy for Standardization and Quality for his appreciated efforts in strengthening the quality infrastructure in the Arab region.
In turn, His Excellency the President of GSO presented a Shield to His Excellency the Director General of AIDSMO as a token for his recognized efforts in enhancing cooperation between the AIDSMO and GSO within the framework of the memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides.
Over the course of two days, the meeting discussed the follow-up to the recommendations of the 58th meeting of the Arab Supreme Committee for Standardization, the report of the fifth meeting of the General Committee for Arab Standardization, the report of the twelfth meeting of the Arab Committee for Conformity Assessment, in addition to the report of the seventeenth meeting of the Committee to follow up on the implementation of the Arab Strategy for Standardization and Quality. It also discussed following up on the implementation of the recommendations of the ninth meeting of the Permanent Committee for Arab Building Codes, the Arab Halal Program, and the Arab Quality Award, and coordination of the Arab position in regional and international meetings and forums, as well as European Union legislation on carbon border amendment (CBAM).
