GSO celebrates the Arab Standardization Day 2020
The GCC Standardization Organization (GSO) is participating in celebrating the Arab Standardization Day, with the Arab Organization for Industrial Development and Mining (AIDMO), which falls on March 25th of each year. The slogan chosen for the Arabic Standardization Day 2020 is “Arab Standardization Supports the Halal Economy.”
In his speech of this occasion, His Excellency Mr. Saud bin Nasser Al Khusaibi, GSO President, said the slogan of the celebration of the Arab Standardization Day this year was chosen as a belief of the importance role that standardization plays in supporting the halal industry, as strong synonym of the economies for many countries, and no longer limited to food, but also includes various areas of halal and its services.
His Excellency explained that GSO has been working since its establishment in cooperation with the national standardization bodies in member countries and through its partnerships with various international and regional standardization organizations to prepare and develop standards for halal sector. GSO has issued more than 15 standards and gulf technical regulations, in addition to a number of other standards related to halal. GSO also cooperates with all member states through the Gulf Technical Committee for Halal and other concerned technical committees and within its annual plans to study and prepare a set of projects for halal standards and technical regulations with a view to covering various areas of halal and its services, whether in the field of food and its components or cosmetics, textiles, logistics services in halal, hospitality, tourism and travel, and others .
GSO is working with its member states to unify Halal standards according to the international best practices to support GSO member states’ economies, facilitating trade exchange, protecting consumer, and finding a common language between manufacturers and interested parties and the Gulf and global markets in halal industry, following up the implementation of Gulf standards and technical regulations and achieving the provisions of Islamic Sharia alike.
In line with these developments, GSO is playing great efforts through cooperation and coordination with its partners regionally and internationally. GSO cooperates closely with the Gulf Accreditation Center (GAC) to implement the Gulf standards and technical regulations for Halal needed for the approval of halal certification bodies. GSO also signed a MoU with the International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF) for technical cooperation in the fields of standards, Gulf technical regulations, technical committees, and capacity building programs. GSO has contributed to the preparation of the Arab Halal Program, which was adopted by AIDMO and referening to Gulf standards and technical regulations. At the Islamic level, GSO and its members have effectively participated in preparing the Halal standards issued by the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC). Moreover, GSO has very close relationship with Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), which is currently updating the international standard for halal.
