Under the patronage of HE the Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani started Monday morning, 14 October 2019 at the GCC headquarters, in Riyadh the GCC Standardization Week 2019, organized by the GCC Standardization Organization in cooperation with the GCC Secretariat during the period from 14-17 October 2019.

In his opening speech, Hamad Rashid Al Marri, the Assistant Secretary General for Legislative and Legal Affairs, praised the role of the GCC Standardization Organization and its constructive role in promoting cooperation and integration among the GCC States in the field of quality management, adopting and developing standards in order to provide a suitable environment for development in various fields.

He added "Today, we share the success of the GCC Standardization Week in its first edition to review the GCC Standardization Organization activities and showcase the GCC States experiences in conformity and technical standardization, in addition to the media and its role".

For his part, Saud Nasser Al-Khusaibi, the Secretary General of the GCC Standardization Organization said that the date of the GCC Standardization Week has been chosen to coincide with the celebration of the International Standardization Day, which falls on the 14th of October of each year. It is the anniversary of the founding of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), which was established on 14 October 1947. "Video specification makes a global platform" has been chosen as the theme for this year.

He pointed out that the three international organizations concerned with standardization issued a statement highlighting the specifications of video and video technologies that have changed significantly in our world, and achieved a revolution in the areas of entertainment, Connected friends and families around the world, enriched the experiences and expertise of people in the field of communication and greatly enabled major improvements in medical care and education.

He added that the Organization aims, through organizing the GCC Standardization Week, to introduce different standardization activities, its importance to protect the health and safety of the consumer, the environment and the national economy, and its role in supporting industry and the development of national exports of the GCC States and access to world markets.

During the opening ceremony, a number of the Organization's 2019 e-projects were launched, most notably the Gulf Standards Store in its new form, Bahrain Standards Store, developing a system of conformity certificates to serve the consumer, the Omani Energy Efficiency Card System, and the developed Conformity Tracking System.

It is worth mentioning that the GCC Standardization Week 2019 will last for four days, with the participation of more than (20) speakers, reviewing papers distributed on (10) themes of topics on GCC standardization, the role of GCC standardization authorities  in the GCC standards, standardization partners, standardization and consumer protection, and  Products Control. In addition to reviewing the GCC States experiences in the areas of conformity, Trade facilitation, standardization technology and the role of media in promoting standardization awareness.