OREANDA-NEWS. July 12, 2012. The Operator of the North Caspian Project - North Caspian Operating Company B.V. (NCOC) - hosted a ceremony in Atyrau today to award international certificates to eight local companies in a bid to demonstrate the Consortium's continued commitment to developing local capacity

Opening the event, NCOC's Local Content Manager A. Netaliyeva said: "I would like to say that the Consortium has made a substantial contribution to the development of local capacity under the North Caspian Sea Project. We have been helping local businesses meet international quality requirements and promoting the benefits that ISO Standards might bring. Over the period of 2006-2011 the Consortium has initiated and sponsored international standards training and certification for 44 local companies, another 19 has been trained and are now preparing for certification. And it gives me a great pleasure to see eight more companies joining their ranks today. I would like to wish you success."

In remarks at the event, the head of the company "TCL Central Asia" noted: "Having received ISO certificates, the companies will be able to improve their performance and offer more competitive goods and services that will meet the requirements of national and international quality standards."

The training was provided by "BGS Consult", whereas audit and certification by "TCL Central Asia". The following companies received ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and ISO 22000 и OHSAS 18001 certificates:

East West Group LLP;

FSDS LLP

Kazakh Geophysical Company LLP

Atirau training-of production organisation of Kazakh society of deaf persons

ZhigerMunaiService LLP

CaspyNefteGasMarket LLP

Beta LLP

ECO-Astana NR

Over the last five years as part of the Local Content policy the Consortium has held 223 general awareness seminars for more than 1400 Kazakhstan companies, as well as 24 specialized forums and workshops for potential local vendors.

More than 450 local companies have undergone qualification audits, 58 companies passed craft skills trainings. As a result of purposeful activities towards Joint Venture facilitation and their further involvement in the Project, nearly 70 JV's provided the Venture with works/services. As a result, more than 2100 Kazakhstan companies are now registered in the Vendor qualification database.

Attending the event were representatives of the Atyrau Akimat, QMC training providers, TCL Central Asia auditing and certification providers, PSA LLC, NCOC and Agent Companies and the certified companies.