Nepal gets full ISO membership

After two decades of being a correspondent member, Nepal has finally received full membership of the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) that will give Nepal right to issue quality certifications.

The country can now issue quality cetification like ISO 26000 and ISO
14000, according to the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM).

These certificates issued to companies on safety measures of consumer goods and road, respectively.

The 36th general assembly of the ISO on September 16-21 in St Petersburg, Russia, approved Nepal’s membership, informed the bureau.

Nepal’s membership will come into effect from January 1, 2014, the bureau director general Ram Aadhar Sah said, adding that the full ISO membership has paved the way for Nepal to formulate standards as guided by the ISO and issue the certifications.

“Domestic companies need not ask foreign agencies to get international certification from now on,” he added.

Though the full membership costs the county an additional Rs 2.6 million for the membership renewal, it would help encourage the quality production in the country apart from ensuing the consumer rights to quality products for the price they pay, but the law needs to be strengthened and harmonisation.

Nepal can now also take part actively in the preparation of specifications and standardisation activities at the international level. It will also have voting right in such activities, the bureau said, adding that it can use the ISO logo and issue standards to interested companies.

Earlier, the bureau had been issuing only the ISO 9001, a certification for quality management system after receiving approval from the National Accreditation Board for Certification Bodies, India.

Now the bureau can explore other areas from among 20,000 ISO standards.

The International Organisation for Standardisation has 162 members, including  114 full members. Including Nepal, the South Asia has India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka as full members of International Organisation for Standardisation, whereas Bhutan and Afghanistan are only correspondent members.

The bureau had formulated some 950 standards in compliance to international standard. But only less than a quarter to some 200 standards have been implemented, though 12 standards are mandatory for products like paints, edibles, gas cylinder and regulators.