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Accreditation is now an integral part of many sectors of society, notably, cross-border trade and protection of health, safety and the environment, the Chairman of Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) and Executive Administrator of the Hong Kong Accreditation Service, Mr Terence Chan, said today (May 21).
Speaking at the opening ceremony of APLAC's Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) Council Meeting, Mr Chan said, "Most importantly, through our stringent MRA criteria and rigorous evaluation process, we have built up trust among ourselves to allow us to recommend third parties to accept the accreditation granted by our APLAC MRA partners with full confidence.
"This confidence also forms a solid foundation for extending our agreement to other types of accreditation at an accelerated speed as the need arises," he added.
Mr Chan said the council had now extended the agreement to cover inspection bodies, reference material providers and was studying extending the arrangement to cover proficiency testing providers.
During the two-day council meeting, members will review evaluation findings, make decisions on accepting or reaffirming MRA status, set and implement evaluation criteria and procedures and work on many other aspects.
Established in 1992, APLAC is a group of accreditation bodies in the Asia Pacific region that accredit laboratories, inspection bodies and reference material producers. It was recognised by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum as one of five Specialist Regional Bodies.
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One of the primary aims of APLAC is to harmonise accreditation practices in the region and to extend the APLAC MRA. There are currently 28 signatories to the MRA.
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The council meeting is one of the six-day APLAC 2009 Mid Year Meetings, which are attended by more than 60 participants.
Ends/Thursday, May 21, 2009
Issued at HKT 11:08
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