Practices of Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Org. in

Delivering Standards

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• SASO was established in 1972 as an Independent Government Body Responsible for all Standardization Activities, under the Name of Saudi

Arabian Standards Org. (SASO)

• Since Feb, 2009, SASO Name has been changed to Saudi Standards, Metrology, and Quality Org., which extends SASO’s responsibilities to cover the supervision of Introducing/Executing Quality initiatives to the Kingdom.

About SASO

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• Our Vision

“ To be a Distinguished Body in all fields of Standardization and Quality at the National, Regional and International levels. ”

• Our Mission

“ To Protect the Consumer and to Ensure the Public Interest by Issuing and Applying the Standards and Quality Systems. ”

Our Vision & Mission

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• Preparation, approval and Publishing of National Standards and Technical Regulations relating to products, measurement, metrology, calibration, marking, sampling, inspection, testing, symbols, definitions

• Promoting awareness for standardization & Quality

• Setting up rules for implementing and granting Conformity Assessment Procedures, Quality Mark, QMS

SASO Responsibilities

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• Oversee the National Measurement & Calibration Center (NMCC) • Operate King Abdulaziz Quality Award (KAQA) • Representation of KSA in Regional and International Organizations • Enquiry Point for TBT (WTO) & In Charge of Notifications

SASO Responsibilities – (Cont’d)

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• 628 Employees • Developed/Adopted ≈ 27818 Standards/Technical Regulations • Granted ≈ 270 factories the Saudi Quality Mark (among which 15 in UAE, 4 in Qatar, 4 in Bahrain, 12 in Egypt, 2 in Jordan, 4

in China, 1 in Italy, 1 in India, 1 in Thailand). • Tests about 4,000 samples annually • Technical Committees: 6 Main Comm., 32 Technical Sub-Comm. with 350

members

SASO in Figures

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• SASO has signed Technical Cooperation Programs with about 40 SDO’s all over the word.

• 14 Mutual Recognition Programs(MRP’s), signed with:

Turkey, Malaysia, Tunisia, South Africa, Jordan, Egypt, Argentina, South Korea, China, Germany, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore and Pakistan.

• In addition, 61 Laboratories have been Accredited by the Saudi Accreditation Committee (SAC).

SASO in Figures (Cont’d)

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SASO is a Member of the following Orgs.:

* Membership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in SMIIC is under process.

** SASO is an Affiliate Member in ILAC

SASO at the Regional and International Level

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SASO & WTO Agreements

• During accession of Saudi Arabia to WTO, SASO was in charge of TBT, and food standards in SPS.

• SASO has updated all its regulations including more Harmonization with International Standards, in addition to Conformity Assessment Procedures according to WTO agreements.

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SASO & WTO Agreements (Cont.)

-We have our Information Center since 1985,which responses to all enquires.

-Now; this center is the Enquiry Point for the TBT in Saudi Arabia. It carries-out all the tasks required by the agreement.

-SASO is in charge of Notifications to WTO.

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How we prepare technical regulations and standards?

• All our TRs and Standards are prepared according to the requirements of the TBT Agreement.

• The Code of Good Practice is implemeted

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General and technical committees

• There are currently (7) general committees and (40) technical committee.

• Members of the committees of about (400) Member of various sectors.

• factories and traders, importers and government agencies, consumer and academic and research bodies are participating in national committees.

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General committees and technical committees by

General Committee

Construction And

building materials

General Committee

Chemical and Petroleum

Products

General Committee

Electrical And electronic

Products

General Committee

The mechanical and metal

products

General Committee

For textile products

General Committee

Measurement and

calibration

Sanitary appliances

Cement And

concrete

Doors and windows

Pipe

Glass

Steel products

Petroleum products

Detergents

And Health and

beauty lotions

Plastics

Paints and varnishes

Home appliances and

its accessories

Cables and its accessories

Electronic devices

And communication devices

And its Accessories

Lighting and its

accessories

Systems and

Electrical accessories

Power Generation , transmission

equipment And distribution

medical Devices And

supplies

Standards and Electrotechnical

terminology Translation

Safety of electromagnetic waves

Non-Ionizing

Air conditioning and

refrigeration

Furniture

Pressure Vessels

Steam Boilers

Desalination and

purification household

drinking water devices

Spinning And

textile products

Physical Metrology

Mechanical

Metrology

Electrical and

electronic Metrology

Pressure and power

gauges

Optics and

Acoustics

measurements

Radiation

measurements

Water Pumps

And Agricultural

irrigation systems

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SASO cooperation with US Standards Organizations

- As far as SASO cooperation with US Standards Organizations, I would like to summarize this cooperation in the following, where some goes back to more than a decade. - As SASO used to host GSO (Formally GSMO), an MOU was signed with NIST in March 1996, one of the achievements of this MOU was organizing 6 training courses in the US.

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SASO cooperation with US Standards Organizations Cont.)

- SASO established a good working relation & cooperation with key US private organizations and Government agencies in several aspect of standardization and related technologies & activities. Several MOU’s were signed and put into effect. To mention few, SASO signed MOU’s with NIST, ASTM , ANSI ,NFPA , and UL

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SAUDI Building Code (SBC) & US Standards

Few years ago, Saudi Arabia Government approved the formation of the first SAUDI Building Code (SBC), which is based on the International Code Council (ICC) set of Codes.

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Further Cooperation with

US Standards Organizations

SASO is always welling to consider cooperation with US standards organizations, based on the added value which can be realistically integrated and applied in our activities and programs.

Thank you for listening and kind attention.

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