President Hu Jintao Witnessed the Signing of Sino-Uzbek Agreement on Accreditation Cooperation

On June 9, 2010, “Agreement between China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (CNAS) and Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Certification of Uzbekistan (Uzstandard Agency)” was signed under the joint witness of Chinese President Hu Jintao and Uzbek President Karimov during Hu’s visit to Uzbekistan. The Agreement was signed in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan.

After signing the Agreement on accreditation cooperation, both parties exchanged and discussed relevant matters for cooperation.

June 9, 2010 was the third World Accreditation Day. The signing of the Agreement under the witness of both Presidents attached special significance to this day. It not only showed that Sino-Uzbekistan exchange and cooperation on accreditation had marched a key step, but also celebrated the world Accreditation Day with the newest achievement in the international cooperation.

China accreditation has achieved significant results by actively participating in the international mutual recognition system, developing bilateral cooperation and exchanges cross the straits, as well as inter-governmental cooperation on mutual recognition of conformity assessment. CNAS has singed all the existing mutual recognition arrangements of IAF, ILAC, PAC and APLAC, which cover over 40 countries and economies, accounting for the majority of the global economy. CNAS also has signed special bilateral cooperation agreements with nine national accreditation bodies.

The accreditation result of CNAS has been widely recognized at home and abroad. Internationally, our accreditation result is necessary for import and export trade in some countries and regions. Domestically, in compulsory product certification program widely promoted by Chinese Government and in the certification fields of organic products, GAP, and FSMS, accreditation is one of the prerequisites designated by the government to appraise the technical and management competency of certification bodies, testing bodies and inspection bodies. While in the fields of management system certification such as QMS, EMS, OHSAS, ISMS and voluntary product certification, as the basic means to evaluate the competency of CBs, accreditation provides confidence to the market via conformity assessment chain organizations.

Chinese accreditation has acquired sustainable and rapid development. Up to March 31, 2010, CNAS has accredited an accumulative total of more than 124 CBs, which have issued 525,800 effective certificates within the accreditation scope, leading the first in the world for consecutive 8 years. CNAS has accredited an accumulative total of 3958 labs and 186 IBs, leading the international peer in terms of number, size and growth rate.