To celebrate the World Accreditation Day 2016, promote the right concept of accreditation and highlight the importance of accreditation for public policy, the Bureau of Standards, Metrology & Inspections (BSMI) held a conference on June 13 at Sheraton Grand Taipei Hotel.
Under the theme "Accreditation: A Global Tool to Support Public Policy," experts from Taiwan and other countries were invited to share their insights on how to enhance the credibility of accreditation, connect accreditation with public policy, establish an efficient accreditation system under the principle of impartiality, independence, transparency and promote evaluation plans that meet the demands of government and business sectors were also topics for discussion. This conference is expected to increase Taiwan's competitiveness in the global market in the future.
Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Wei-Fuu Yang gave an opening speech and emphasized the importance of accreditation in economic development. Facing a huge change in the world, the governments, businesses and consumers are as reliant as ever on quality insurance for asking safe and secure living environment, he said. Under this backdrop, more and more governments and authorities are using "accreditation" as a tool to assure the quality of commodity and service, making "accreditation" widely accepted by the government. Taking Taiwan as an example, he said that the BSMI has been promoting accreditation in areas such as consumer protection, public health, environment issues, law execution and evaluation since 1993. Accreditation is used in many contexts and policy arrangements for protecting public interests as well.
Other speakers include Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) Chair Nain-ling Jou and Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (PAC) Chair Brett Abraham. They shared current situation of their organizations, successful case studies and results of promoting World Accreditation Day.
In addition, this conference invited accreditation experts from Taiwan and abroad to give keynote speeches. Former Chair of the European Cooperation for Accreditation Graham Talbot talked about how European Union members support public policy and overcome challenges. Jonathan Murthy from United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) talked about using accreditation as a support for public policy from a global perspective. Taiwan Accreditation Foundation (TAF) CEO Chin-Hsin Hsu talked about the TAF's experiences when supporting government policies. Meanwhile, Chung-Shu Chen from National Communications Commission's (NCC) Department of Frequency and Resources talked about NCC equipment testing and the cooperation between NCC and TAF. Chikako Makimo from Japan Accreditation Board (JAB) talked about the significance of a bilateral agreement for mutual recognition between APLAC and PAC and the benefits of Paris Agreement.
A total number of 200 participants from 35 economic entities and 62 organizations were registered, of which 150 were representatives from accreditation organizations in the Asia Pacific region. All the participants agreed that the conference yielded a fruitful result.
Accreditation plays a more important role when executing public policy in recently years, said the BSMI. The conference was a great opportunity to bridge Taiwan with the global accreditation network. This event also helps explain to domestic authorities, businesses and consumers that establishing an internationally recognized accreditation system is beneficial to the execution of public policy. In addition, the realization of international accreditation system can achieve the ideal of "one assessment, one certificate, accepted everywhere".