LAHORE: South Asian Association of Regional Corporation (SAARC) countries has vowed for harmonization of standards for chemical and chemical products including toilet soap, shampoo, cosmetics and other health-care products.
This was decided in a two-day third meeting of SAARC’s specialized body on standarization, South Asian Standard Organization (SARSO) on “Chemical and Chemical Products” concluded at a local hotel. The meeting was hosted by Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), which is the National Standard Body of Pakistan under the administrative control of Ministery of Science and Technology, Government of Pakistan.
The meeting was chaired by Muhammad Zaheer, chairperson Sectoral Technical Committee of SARSO, while Manager Afghanistan National Standard Authority Mirza Muhammad Ayubi, Mr Dechen Chiphel from Bhotan, Senior Deputy Director Sri Lanka Standard Insititution DS Fernando, Assistant Director Gayani manchanayake, Programme Officer SAARC Secretariat Khatmando Manzoor Riaz, Tashi Wangchuk, Khawaja Ghulam Muhayyuddin from SARSO Secretariat, Secretary PSQCA Ghulam Umer Qazi, Director Akhtar A. Bhugio, Waseem Mirza, Syed Iqbal, Nazir Hussain, Ahmed Nadeem Iqbal, Khuram Mateen, Asghar Ali, Miss Aini Zahra and other local experts from PSQCA and other industries also attended the event. Indian and Bangladeshi experts also participated the meeting through vedio conference.
Addressing the closing ceremony, Director General PSQCA Engr. Khalid Siddique said that the benefit of sharing ideas with highly learned, trade promotion experts along with private entrepreneurs would certainly help SAARC counties in boosting the regional trade.
He said it is an honour for Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) to hold the meeting of SARSO with the aim to focus on the Importance of Regional Standardization Activities.
In fact, countries in a particular region have similarities in climate, culture, governmental policies, consumption, industrial production and other areas. Therefore, there might be a need for common standards. In order to deal with these regional issues in the field of standardisation, regional standards organisations are there in different regions of the world.
He said that the main objective of the SARSO is to facilitate coordination and cooperation among SAARC member countries in the field of standardisation and develop a set of harmonised regional standards. It is also presumed that such standards will not only increase regional trade, but also will help enhancing global trade of the region.
During the meeting, the experts made a comperison of different standards of SAARC countries on toilet soap, shampoo, hair color, cosmetics and other health care products and expressed their committment to make one standard for one region. They also aimed to remove all the bars in making standards for SAARC countries so that trade among these countries can be promoted.
All the experts talked and expressed their point of views in building standards on chemical and chemical products for SAARC countries and briefed the participants.
It may be mentioned here that SARSO is an organization of standard bodie of SAARC countries including Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority, Afghanistan National Standard Authority, Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute, Bureau of Indian Standards, Nepal Bureau of Standard and Metrology, Bhotan Standard Bureau, Ministery of Economic Development Male and Sri Lanka Standard Insititute and it has been formed to promote coordination among the SAARC countries on standardization for the SAARC countries.
