Summary Report ITU-UNIDO Forum on Sustainable Conformity Assessment for Asia-Pacific RegionYangon, Myanmar, 25-27 Nov 2013
A Forum on “Sustainable Conformity Assessment for Asia-Pacific Region” was jointly organized by ITU and UNIDO at MiCasa Hotel, Yangon, from 25 to 27 November 2013. This forum was hosted by ITU’s membership focal point of Republic of the Union of Myanmar - Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, and supported by the Myanmar Scientific and Technological Research Department as UNIDO’s focal point. This Forum was attended by 73 participants and speakers from 10 Asia-Pacific countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Indonesia, Lao, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam) and international organizations such as ITU, UNIDO, ISO, IEC, IAF/ILAC and PAC.
Full information on the workshop, including the program and the presentations made, is available at:
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/Workshops-and-Seminars/conformity-interoperability/201311/Pages/programme.aspx
Opening Ceremony
Mr Khin Maung Thet, Director-General of Post and Telecommunication Department (PTD), opened the forum by welcoming the participants and highlighted the importance of standard norms and procedures to market liberalization and sustainable economy development for Myanmar. He introduced the progress Myanmar is making in developing national standard law and national standardization committee. He appreciated that this joint effort of ITU and UNIDO is very timely to help the Myanmar regulator with much needed information on standardization policies at global, regional and national levels and conformity assessment practices. He looked forward to cooperation and assistance from ITU and UNIDO in the future.
Mr Win Khaing Moe, Director-General of Myanmar Scientific and Technological Research Department, welcomed the participants and highlighted that MSTRD is establishing the National Standard Body and National Accreditation Body of Myanmar, and a National Standard Draft Law of Myanmar is in the process of approval by the Parliament.
Mr Malcom Johnson, Director of TSB, welcomed the participants, thanked MCIT and MSTRD for hosting this event. He appreciated the continuous good collaboration between ITU and UNIDO and the organization of this event jointly in Myanmar. His speech emphasized the importance of ICTs, standards and conformity assessment for developing economies, and highlighted the opportunity Myanmar is facing to jump several generations of ICT technology by conformance to international standards such as those produced by ITU-T to ensure interconnection and interoperability of international telecommunication. He appreciated that UNIDO has been an excellent partner in bringing international organizations together to find their respective roles in the task, and have started a project on national quality infrastructure here in Myanmar. He also introduced the ITU training and consultation effort in building capacity in different regions of the world, and ITU’s pilot projects in some countries to help establish C&I programmes, provide assistance on infrastructural issues such as regional or sub-regional test centres, and Mutual Recognition Agreements. He reiterated the importance that developing countries participate in the standards making process and mentioned that ITU’s organizing a bridging standardization workshop and invited Myanmar and the other countries represented here to be more involved in ITU’s standardization process.
Mr Ouseph Padickakudi, Senior Industrial Development Officer of UNIDO also thanked the hosts MCIT and MSTRD for their excellent organization of the Joint ITU-UNIDO Conformity Assessment Forum for the first time in Myanmar. He highlighted the need for utilizing the existing National Quality Infrastructure of the developing countries and LABNET where possible, while implementing the ITU conformity assessment programmes in the Asia-Pacific region so as to make best use of the scarce resources of the countries concerned as well for the sustainable operation of ICT product testing centres, in the years to come.
Session 1: Session 1:International Standardization - The Role of the World Standards Cooperation (ISO, IEC and ITU)
Mr Nigel Croft, UNIDO Expert and Moderator for this session, explained that this first series of presentations was designed to give participants a broad overview of the activities of the three major international standardization bodies, in order to prepare the ground for more detailed discussions later in the workshop.
Mr Malcolm Johnson, Director of ITU-TSB, explained about the origins and relationships between ITU, IEC and ISO. He explained about the synergies between the three standards bodies, but also alerted regarding the need to avoid overlap and repetition. He explained about the unique make-up of the ITU, with participants not only from governmental organizations, but also from universities and the private sector. Mr Johnson also highlighted the major achievements and ongoing work of ITU-T on telecom/ICT standardization, such optical fibre networks, universal charger, video codec, next generation networks and cybersecurity standards, etc.
Mr Mark Amos, IECEx explained that the role of the IEC is not only as a standards development body, but also within the context of conformity assessment, through its various certification schemes. He reiterated the need for close collaboration with the ITU, specifically mentioning the Smart Grid, where “everything will be connected to everything else” in a way that has never been seen before.
Mr Paolo Rosa, ITU Expert, described the activities of ISO, and in particular the role of the Conformity Assessment Committee (ISO/CASCO) in developing standards jointly with the IEC that are applicable to the assessment of systems, products, processes and people. He explained about the structure of ISO/CASCO and the “CASCO Toolbox” of standards that are relevant when considering a suitable conformity assessment infrastructure in developing countries.
There followed a lively discussion related to the context of standardization activities in a fast-paced industry such as ICT, the extent to which standards should provide the basis for technical regulations, and the amount of prescriptive detail in standards that can quickly become obsolete. Topics raised from the workshop participants included questioning about the low involvement of National Standards Bodies in the ITU’s standardization activities, and the need for market surveillance, particularly when a self-declaration of conformity system is in place and in light of fraudulent activities in some developing countries.
Session 2: Country Experiences from Asia-Pacific Region – Telecom Regulator’s Perspective
This session consisted of presentations providing information on practices, approaches and concerns for of telecom regulators, esp. conformity assessment of telecom/ICT products from countries of Asia-Pacific Region. The session deliberated country experiences from five countries especially the role of telecom regulator / administration (in case of Bhutan) for standards and conformity assessment.
Mr Zar Ne Aung, from PTD, Myanmar, shared the ICT development status in Myanmar and the progress Myanmar is making in establishing the telecommunication regulation (including organization, legislation and regulations) and issuing new licenses to enable competition. Myanmar Parliament passed Telecommunication Law on 8 Oct 2013 and PTD is making 5 associated regulations, i.e., Licensing Regulation, Spectrum Regulation, Numbering Regulation, Interconnection and Access Regulation and Competition Regulation, within the 90-days period as requested by Parliament. He in particular proposed Procedure for a license for Equipment and components as well as Public Consultations will be held before finalizing the regulations for Standardization and Type Approval.
Ms. Chaymaly Phakasoum, from MPT, Lao, shared her experience on ICT standardization and conformity assessment in Laos. Lao faces challenges of insufficient regulatory framework; Inadequate qualified human resources and Limited testing laboratory availability. In Lao PDR, telecommunications equipment have been expanded rapidly followed the increased import without checking or control the quality and conformity assessment. In Lao PDR, telecommunications equipment have been expanded rapidly followed the increased import without checking or control the quality and conformity assessment.
Mr Dorji Garab, from MIC, Bhutan shared the roles of various standards setting agencies in Bhutan including Ministry of Information Communications, Bhutan Information, Communications and Media Authority Bhutan Standards Bureau, prevailing legal and regulatory framework, issues such as limited bandwidth, speed, quality and implementation finally sharing the experience of “Electronic Government Interoperability Framework.
Ms Ika Dyah Martanti, from MCIT, Indonesia, shared her experiences from Indonesia for the need of Conformity Assessment and Indonesia Regulator’s view, Requirement to Meet Technical Regulation, Conformity Assessment, Certification, Establishing the Master Plan in implementing new technologies to meet national standard/ technical regulations.
Mr Ts. Chuluunbat, from CRC, Mongolia, shared experiences on conformity assessment in Mongolia including local activities involving quality manual guidelines resolution, ISO 9001 quality management system, accreditation conformity assessment body. Some challenges such as lack of test labs, human resources and lack of availability of suitable technical documents.
The session underlined the need for enhanced collaboration and exchange of experiences amongst the regulators from the region, building skill sets and create awareness.
Session 3: ITU Activities on Conformance and Interoperability
Mrs. Xiaoya Yang, ITU-TSB presented an overview of the ITU C&I Programme, analyzed the telecom/ICT environment where ITU-T as an international standardization body is working in and explained the background why ITU membership requested ITU to start a conformity and interoperability (C&I) programme consisting of four key elements: (1) an ITU-T conformity assessment programme to promote conformance to ITU standards; (2) interoperability testing events between various manufacturers’ products; (3) capacity building; and (4) assisting in the establishment of regional or sub-regional test centres in developing countries.
She continued with a detailed presentation on ITU-T’s objective and activities to implement Pillar 1 of the ITU C&I Programme - ITU-T conformity assessment programme. She analyzed the complexity of the conformity assessment challenges the ITU-T is facing and emphasized the objective of ITU-T is to ensure that non-interoperability is not caused of poor or insufficient of standardization. She introduced that ITU-T Study Group 11 is trialing out different possible approaches by pilot conformity assessment project, and invited testing labs, certification bodies and national standardization bodies to partner with ITU to ensure developing countries to benefit from interoperable international telecommunication standards.
Mr Naito, Chairman of ITU-T Study Group 16 introduced the IPTV standards produced by ITU-T SG16 and interoperability testing and showcasing events organized as example of ITU’s activity to implement Pillar 2 of the ITU C&I Programme. He also introduced a testbed using IPv6 network developed by voluntary ITU members together with the ITU-TSB to facility interoperability testing of ITU IPTV standards and IPv6 technology.
Session 4: Country Experiences from Asia-Pacific Region – Other Stakeholder’s Perspective
This session shared information on experience and approaches for conformity assessment from countries of the Asia-Pacific Region, including legislation, organizational structure, procedures and activities by presentations from Umair Afzal, Multinet, Pakistan, Mr Ouseph Padickakudi, on behalf of Mr Nasih Jamaal, Poly, Maldives, Mr Sudhakar Datta & Mr Kamal Das, BSTI, Bangladesh and Mr Shambhu Jha, NBSM, Nepal.
There was a consensus for overcoming the fragmented approach of national standardization, building capacity as well as exchanging country experiences where some developing countries in an advanced stage of conformity assessment could share their experiences with other countries which are at the initial stages of development.
Session 5: UNIDO Activities on Capacity Building in the General Arena of Standards and Conformity Assessment
Mr Ouseph Padickakudi, UNIDO; Mr Tashi Wangchuk, Bhutan; Mr Sudhakar Datta, Bangladesh and Mr Nigel Croft, UNIDO Expert were the panelists of the session. Mr Padickakudi emphasized the need for the availability of Government approved National Quality Policy for sustainable National Quality Infrastructure development. He elaborated on the UNIDO’s technical cooperation Programmes in the area of Standards, Metrology, Testing and Quality (SMTQ) in the Asia and Pacific Region and welcomed ITU partnerships for developing human resources in the conformity assessment area in the region. He is of the view that the SMTQ capacity that are being developed by UNIDO in the region could be used by the planned ICT products testing centres in the region, particularly of the metrological calibration services from the National Metrology Institutes.
Mr Wangchuk shared the experience of Bhutan Standards Bureau on their evolution as an independent standards body through the technical assistance of UNIDO. He sought for continued technical assistance in the NQI area for further development of the country. Rigid electrical and ICT products testing capability is missing in the country and there is a need to build up such infrastructure as the economy grows.
Mr Datta elaborated on the functions of the Bangladesh Accreditation Board and its current operational structures. He mentioned that BAB has already accredited 6 testing laboratories and they are on the way to apply for the APLAC-MRA in 2014/2015. Mr Datta thanked UNIDO for continuous assistance to develop the human capacity of the Bangladesh Accreditation Board and for their support in aiming the APLAC MRA.
Mr Nigel Croft presented the Asian Countries’ ISO 9001 survey results, findings and recommendations to the audience and emphasized on the importance of accredited certification for confidence building in the management system process. There was clear empirical evidence to conclude that ISO 9001 certification contributes to the revenue of the companies if the management system is properly implemented and maintained.
Session 6: Creating a Credible Conformity Assessment Infrastructure at the National, Regional and International Levels
Mr Venkataraman Balakrishnan (Venkat) moderated the session and in his initial remarks suggested that "sustainability" of conformity assessment could be looked at from two angles - would there be enough potential for conformity assessment activities in the nation/region we are interested in and what steps stakeholders including government and regulators should consider to make conformity assessment sustainable. He emphasized that for any conformity assessment activity to be sustainable it was absolutely necessary that the activity itself should be credible and meet international norms and standards.
Mr Mark Amos from IEC Ex Secretariat provided an overview of what IEC conformity assessment is and how IEC was engaged in providing a framework for credible conformity assessment in the area of ICT. He explained that fairness, consistency and reciprocity were the keywords on which the IEC conformity assessment programs were based. He further explained how the mutual recognition arrangement worked and how IEC could assist developing countries in capacity building for conformity assessment.
Venkat made a brief presentation about the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC). He explained that the primary objective of both organizations was to work towards the goal of "one conformity assessment result accepted everywhere". He explained how the mutual recognition arrangement programs being offered by both the organizations worked and emphasized that this was one of the mechanisms to demonstrate credibility of the conformity assessment programs.