Strengthen capacity of developing countries in international standardization activities

Post date: Thursday, Nov 23, 2023 | 12:31 - View count: 587

From November 12 to 18, 2023, the Vietnamese delegation attended the “ISO capacity building journey linked to meeting week of ISO/IEC JTC 1 (Information technology)” (referred to as the Journey) organized by ISO in Berlin, Germany. The ISO is implementing a project on “International Standards Integration for Critical and Emerging Technology in Southeast Asia” funded by a Grant from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of the Commonwealth of Australia. This complements a project by Standards Australia.

In accordance with the DFAT Grant, and under the framework of the ISO Action Plan for developing countries 2021-2025, the ISO Capacity Building Unit provided training in the form of a ‘journey’ linked to the plenary meeting of ISO/IEC JTC 1 on Information technology hosted by The German Institute for Standardization (DIN) in Berlin (Germany). The capacity building journey includes a training program before and after the meeting week of the ISO/IEC JTC1 Technical Committee on the ISO standards development process to better understand the scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1.

The journey aims to increase the effective participation of developing countries in the work of technical committees, ensure that all voices are heard, and strengthen capacity to proactively participate in ISO’s technical work on the development of Critical and Emerging Technology (CET) standards. Along with delegations from 6 developing countries in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand), the Vietnamese delegation actively participated in: The training course took place prior to the opening ceremony and the JTC plenary session on November 12 (all day); Plenary meeting from November 13 – 17 (5 days).

At the training course organized by ISO Capacity Building Unit (CBU), trainers from CBU and, in especially, Mr. Chair Phil Wennblom and Committee Manager Lisa Rajchel of JTC1 directly introduced to the participants the process of developing ISO’s international standards; Committee structure, functions and tasks of JTC1 and Subgroups, and the main contents and agenda of the Plenary Meeting of JTC1.

The training course took place successfully with learning activities, group exercises, and specific examples simulating the process of developing ISO international standards. Instructors Adrew Dryden and head of Program Manager of CBU Francesco Dadaglio taught enthusiastically, helping participants from 7 developing countries better understand ISO, JTC1 and the method of developing ISO international standards.

Vietnamese delegation with 2 ISO CBU instructors.

According to ISO statistics, JTC1 meetings in the week of November 13 – 17, 2023 had 177 participants (including about 40 participated online), reviewed 170 reports of Advisory Group (AG), Sub-committee (SC), Working Group (WG) and National Standards Bodies (NSB) of member countries. Under the excellent leadership and management of Mr. Chair Phil Wennblom, all reports were presented, discussed and concluded within the time frame of the plenary meeting.

The Chairs of the AG, SC, and WG presented their reports on progress, current status of their projects, difficulties and challenges encountered, as well as solutions, proposals, and plans for further work. The parties gave their opinions, discussed and debated, sometimes quite tensely, but in the end all reached consensus. On the last day of the meeting, the parties approved a draft resolution as a basis for implementing the next work of JTC1 in the near future.

The plenary meeting of JTC1.

The Vietnamese delegation learned useful knowledge, collected a lot of useful information as well as actively exchanged and built relationships with national and international standards organizations and experts and colleagues from other countries. After the journey, the delegation will report and propose works that Vietnam is able to contribute to ISO, propose ideas and projects to improve Vietnam’s capacity to actively participate in the process of developing international standards, contribute to the national strategy on standardization, and enhance Vietnam’s position in the international arena./.