Practices of Saudi Standards,
Metrology and Quality Org. in
Delivering Standards
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05/06/2011
About SASO
•
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.
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05/06/2011
Our Vision & Mission
• 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. ”
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05/06/2011
SASO Responsibilities
•
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
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05/06/2011
SASO Responsibilities – (Cont’d)
•
•
•
•
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
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05/06/2011
SASO in Figures
•
•
•
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
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•
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05/06/2011
SASO in Figures (Cont’d)
• 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).
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05/06/2011
SASO at the Regional and International Level
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
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05/06/2011
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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05/06/2011
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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05/06/2011
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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05/06/2011
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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05/06/2011
General committees and technical committees by
General Committee
Measurement and
calibration
Physical Metrology
Mechanical
Metrology
Electrical and
electronic Metrology
Pressure and power
gauges
Optics and
Acoustics
measurements
Radiation
measurements
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General Committee
For textile products
General Committee
The mechanical and metal
products
General Committee
Electrical And electronic
Products
General Committee
Chemical and Petroleum
Products
Spinning And
textile products
Air conditioning and
refrigeration
Home appliances and
its accessories
Petroleum products
Furniture
Cables and its accessories
Water Pumps
And Agricultural
irrigation systems
Electronic devices
And communication devices
And its Accessories
Pressure Vessels
Steam Boilers
Desalination and
purification household
drinking water devices
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
Detergents
And Health and
beauty lotions
Plastics
Paints and varnishes
General Committee
Construction And
building materials
Sanitary appliances
Cement And
concrete
Doors and windows
Pipe
Glass
Steel products
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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05/06/2011
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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05/06/2011
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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05/06/2011
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.
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05/06/2011
Thank you for listening and kind attention.
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05/06/2011