IN LINE WITH INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

A resolution of the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev has launched a radical reformation of the standardization and certification system. It ranks among important measures envisaged by the Actions Strategy, and is called to make the promotion of domestic products in foreign markets effective.

As noted by the document, Uzstandart Agency failed to comply with international requirements in its performance, and did not ensure the effective fulfillment of its functions. In particular, the work on adoption of international ISO standards was poorly organized. Their share in the national regulatory document stock was only 13%.

The Agency insufficiently assisted enterprises in terms of introducing international quality management systems, and the existing reference base did not allow full-scale metrological control of high-precision devices that are used in certain industries.

The resolution is called to remedy the situation in the sector. The program of integrated measures to further streamline and increase the efficiency of the Uzstandart Agency for 2017-2020, approved by the President, is going to be the ‘road map’ in this work.

The work will cover several major areas, including improvement of the legislative framework, further modernization and re-equipment of Agency’s testing laboratories and regional centers with modern high-precision measuring and testing equipment.

It is also planned to gradually adopt more than 2,000 international standards, double their share in the national regulatory documents stock, introduce international quality management systems at nine thousand domestic enterprises, and thereby increase their number by 4.6 times by 2020.

It is equally important to create conditions for international recognition of the results of tests by Uzstandart Agency laboratories, by accrediting them by the relevant organizations.

The head of state has also seriously changed the management system in the sector. For example, he approved an updated organizational structure of the Uzstandart agency, which envisages the establishment of state enterprises ‘Uzbek Accreditation Center for Conformity Assessment Bodies’ and ‘Uzbek National Metrology Institute’, as well as the reorganization of the ‘Republican Test and Certification Center’.

The first structure will deal with accreditation of conformity assessment bodies and metrological services in line with international standards, as well as with inspection control over compliance with established conditions and requirements. The second one will be responsible for the improvement and development of the National Reference Base, maintenance of measurement standards, the highest precision measuring instruments, their comparison at the international level, storage and transfer.

A specialized working group on promoting standardization, metrology, certification and coordination of the implementation of quality management systems was established to ensure the effective implementation of the approved program of measures.

According to experts, the implementation of all the objectives would increase the competitiveness of domestic products and eliminate technical barriers in foreign trade by bringing national standards in line with international requirements, and the widespread introduction of modern quality management systems.

(As part of the social order of the Oliy Majlis Public Fund for Support of NGOs and Other Civil Society Institutions)

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