ACCREDITING LANKAN STANDARDS

Lanka’s top national accreditor starts fielding global applications

• ‘Organic & Forest certification coming’-Rishad
• SLAB awards certifications on Int’l Accreditation Day
• Accredits 16 Lankan medical operations, 10 more coming
• ‘Organic monitoring with EDB’s NOCU’-Rishad
• 83 Lankan & foreign institutions certified by SLAB
• Introduces vehicle emission accreditation

Sri Lanka’s top-most accreditation body has garnered applications from eager firms in China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia-and Lankan forest accreditations too are coming, as revealed on 09 June. “SLAB has successfully accredited firms from China, India and Saudi Arabia, bringing international recognition to Sri Lanka. They will start accrediting Lankan vehicle emission testing operators from this year” announced Rishad Bathiudeen (Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka) on 09 June in Colombo.

Minister Bathiudeen was addressing the Sri Lanka Accreditation Certificate Awarding event held on 09 June at Kingsbury Hotel, Colombo. The event was organised by Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB) functioning under Minister Bathiudeen’s Industry and Commerce Ministry. SLAB is Sri Lanka’s apex accreditation body and SLAB’s June 09 awards were taking place in the aftermath of the successful conclusion of its afternoon technical sessions on the same day.

“I have been informed that this is the seventh consecutive year that SLAB is celebrating this event. I am pleased that SLAB has successfully concluded its related technical sessions this afternoon” said Minister Bathiudeen and added: “The main role of SLAB is to facilitate trade and exports in the provision of goods and services to the local and international markets. 83 institutions and laboratories were accredited by SLAB as of 2014. SLAB’s total revenues of Rs 18.8 Mn in 2013 increased to Rs 27.5 Mn in 2014. This year the world accreditation day theme is “Supporting the delivery of health and social care.” Due to SLAB’s certification of Lankan hospitals more than Rs 30 million of foreign expenditure is saved for the Lankan health sector. SLAB is currently accrediting 16 Lankan medical providers and 10 more applications are being considered. It is also my view that Lankan medical laboratories should adopt the international standard ISO 15189 to upgrade their systems. SLAB has informed me that they are now getting more foreign clients and as a result, they have successfully accredited firms from China, India and Saudi Arabia bringing international recognition to Sri Lanka. SLAB will also introduce two new fields of certifications and one new testing system this year. Frist is the organic certification. National Organic Control Unit (NOCU) under the EDB is the monitoring body of organic products of Sri Lanka. SLAB will implement the new organic certification in collaboration with EDB’s NOCU. SLAB will also introduce the new Forest Garden Certification to accredit forests in the country. I am pleased to note that SLAB received the first application for its new Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification under Forest Garden Certification from the Indonesian office of a Netherlands based firm and is now working on it. Second is that SLAB will start accrediting vehicle emission testing operators in Sri Lanka from this year, taking into consideration of the public opinion and representations made to them. Sri Lanka needs to take actions to safeguard the rights and obligations of people in need of medical care. I think that with its strengths SLAB can guide to introduce good social-care systems to the country. As we now aim beyond the $20 billion export target by 2020 under the economic vision of HE the President Maithripala Sirisena it is important that we export high quality products with certification accredited by agencies such as SLAB so that we could continue to win at competitive global markets. I strongly believe that the mutual recognition by SLAB with regional and international bodies on testing calibration and certification will be very helpful for these wins.”

“Since 2005, SLAB has been able to have a clientele of 109 organizations including foreign clients and granted 94 accreditations” said Namal Rajapaksa (Chairman-SLAB) addressing the event, and added: “SLAB is now equipped with nearly 250 assessors and about 100 technical experts to support its accreditation programmes. During the last 10 years SLAB has acquired a remarkable progress and it is my wish that SLAB will be able to emerge as an accreditation leader in the world in the very near future.”

Currently two vehicle emission testing operators are active in Sri Lanka’s emission control-‘Laughs Eco Sri’ and ‘Drivegreen’.