OREANDA-NEWS. May 13, 2011. The 39th Meeting of the Interstate Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification was held in the conference hall of the Arzuw Hotel in the Avaza national tourism zone, one of the picturesque regions of our country.

The delegations of the participating states of the Interstate Council led by the heads of the relevant government agencies of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine participated in the forum.

The representatives of the authoritative international and regional organisations, including the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the UNECE Working Party on Technical Harmonization and Standardization Policies, the European Committee for Standardization and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (СЕN-СЕNЕLЕК), the International Electrotechnical Commission (Switzerland), national agencies, committees, bureaus and institutions specializing in the field of standardization, metrology, certification from Austria, Germany, Spain, India, Lithuania, Poland, Turkey, France, Czechia and other countries.

It is not by chance that Turkmenistan became the venue for this large-scale meeting. Our country that has the well-deserved high international prestige and attaches priority significance to mutually beneficial partnerships in the economic and other sectors was elected the Chair of the Interstate Council for 2010-2011.

The welcome address of President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov was presented at the meeting. The leader of the Turkmen state put emphasis on the importance of the work on development of the standardisation, metrology and certification systems that in its turn facilitate enhancing mutually advantageous trade and economic relations, industrial contacts, scientific and technical cooperation between friendly countries.

Having set the specific task to rank among countries with qualitatively developed economies of the world including through developing the standardisation system, Turkmenistan stands always ready for cooperation in this field, emphasized President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov expressing belief that the regular meeting of the Interstate Council would be held in a proper manner and contribute to strengthening fruitful partnerships.

The forum agenda included 50 major and organisational issues. The report on the work done by the Interstate Council last year was presented during the meeting. He participants considered the progress in implementing the decisions adopted at the previous meetings on promotion of sector cooperation, harmonization of the technical regulation, standardization, metrology, certification and accreditation policies.

This was the core of the reports presented by the heads of the national standardization, metrology and certification agencies, who informed of the work carried out in the participating states of the Interstate Council to update national legislation in this field, upgrade technical regulations, strengthen the material and technical basis of relevant services, etc.

The discussions focused on such issues as elaboration and harmonization of modern standards and norms, achievement of unanimity in the field of metrology, development of new standard units of measurement oriented particularly towards nanotechnology, protection of customers from low quality products, goods and services.

In general, all this is to facilitate developing ‘quality infrastructure’ on the vast expanses of international goods market, promoting fruitful economic, scientific and technical and trade cooperation between commodity producers, reducing technical costs in the trade and business sectors, raising competitiveness of goods produced in the participating states.

In this context emphasis was put on the positive experience of Turkmenistan, which had achieved considerable success in introducing international quality standards in all sectors of the national economy and the social sphere. The specific examples include the fuel and energy sectors, the textile industry, the Avaza national tourism zone on the Caspian seashore. The National Programme for development of the standardization system of Turkmenistan for 2011-2015 adopted last autumn plays a critical role in addressing the issues related to economic management, accelerated development of science and technologies and application of scientific and technological advances in industry, modernisation of the trade sector and protection of consumers’ rights.

During the first day the meeting participants discussed a wide range of issues related to collaboration in the field of standardization, metrology, certification and accreditation and information dissemination and exchange. In particular, the discussion focussed on introduction of the integrated automated data system of the Interstate Council that is currently in development and has shown the good results in increasing effectiveness of document flow and decision making.

Summing up the first day, the foreign participants expressed gratitude to President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov for active assistance in holding this Meeting, cordial; welcome extended in the Turkmen land and the high level of organisation of the forum.