Tuesday 24 September

Participation of Developing Countries in international standardization

09:00		Welcome and introduction Mr. Gene Hutchinson, Workshop Chairman
09:10		What's the problem? How to search solutions? - View from the ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) Mr. Fabio Tobón, Chairman of the ISO/TMB Task Force
09:25		An in-depth study of the problems by the standardizers and other stake-holders from developing countries - ISO/WTO regional workshops Dr. Anwar El-Tawil, Secretary of ISO/DEVCO Mr. Folke Hermanson Snickars, Workshops´ Facilitator, SIS (Sweden)
09:55		Views of international organizations and of the donor community World Trade Organization (WTO) Mr. Paul-Henri Ravier, Deputy Director-General DIN (Germany) Mr. Ernst-Peter Ziethen, Director International JISC (Japan) Mr. Michio Sakurada, Director, International Affairs of Technical Regulations, Standards and Conformity Assessment, METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) Mr. Nils Olof Malmer, Head, Private Sector Development Division United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Dr. Otto Loesener-Diaz, Industrial Development Officer, Industrial Promotion and Technology Branch
10:45		Coffee/Tea break
11.15		Parallel breakout groups - What should the different players do? - National standards bodies - Governments - Private sector (industry, trade, consumers) - Donor community - International organizations
12:30		Lunch
14:00		Reporting by breakout group rapporteurs and discussion
15:15		Coffee/Tea break
15:45		Recommended programme of action General discussion and adoption
17:30		Closure

The continuing progress of globalization is giving added importance to international standards as a powerful tool available to manufacturers and exporters for strategic planning, improving the quality of products and services and achieving access to export markets. Awareness of existing international standards and their implementation can go a long way toward helping developing countries and economies in transition overcome the development gap and become better integrated in the world economy.

However, the participation of such countries in international standardization work is still too limited and the degree of implementation of international standards in
those economies is still low. This can lead to barriers to international trade and the locking-in of such countries in a situation of economic backwardness.

To enhance the participation of developing countries and economies in transition in international standardization and to promote the implementation of international standards in those economies, ISO,in close association with the World Trade Organization (WTO)and a number of standards bodies and donor agencies from industrialized countries, has embarked on an initiative to study the problems facing developing countries in their efforts to participate more effectively in international standardization work.

This initiative, spearheaded by the ISO Technical Management Board (ISO/TMB) and the ISO Committee on Developing Country Matters (ISO/DEVCO), has enjoyed the support of: the WTO, which financed two out of five regional workshops held to study the problems and propose solutions,and of the ISO members from Germany, Japan and Sweden who financed one regional workshop each.

The five regional workshops were held in Belgrade, Bangkok, Nairobi, Bogota and Cairo. They were attended by representatives of the national standards bodies and of other stakeholders of standardization such as industry, trade and consumers.

This Workshop is being held to wrap up the work done at the five regional workshops and to reach conclusions at the global level as to what each of the different players in standardization in developing countries should do. It is hoped that the participants
at the Workshop will agree on a recommended Programme of Action that can be presented for implementation to the different parties interested in helping developing countries and economies in transition strengthen their standards infrastructure and enhance their participation in international standardization.