Saudi Quality Mark Receives International Accreditation 

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       SASO, represented by the Saudi Quality Mark Department, obtained the International Accreditation Certificate according to the requirements of ISO IEC 17065 2012 from the GCC Accreditation Center. This is in continuation of SASO's efforts to enhance confidence in the Mark and to consolidate its role in enabling its products to compete in the local and international markets. SASO emphasizes that this accreditation helps to facilitate the recognition of the Quality Mark internationally, thus supporting Saudi branded industries and products and expanding their horizons in the target markets.

     For his part, Eng. Saud bin Rashid Al-Askar, Deputy Governor for Conformity and Quality expressed his happiness for the Saudi Quality Mark to obtain this accreditation. He pointed out that this is part of a series of objectives aimed at enhancing the safety of products and consumer confidence in Saudi products, inside and outside Saudi Arabia, and raising competitiveness to achieve regional leadership. He praised what Quality Mark Department achieved by accomplishing the requirements and raising the technical efficiency which resulted in improving the work performance and responsiveness to meet the increasing demands for licensing to use  the Saudi Quality Mark on products from the Kingdom and abroad.

      Al-Askar pointed out that the number of factories licensed to use the Saudi Quality Mark on their products are more than (303) factories, of which only (115) new applications were granted the license to use the Quality Mark in 2017, in addition to (280) applications under study. He explained that the applications for licensing and renewal of licenses to use the Mark are done through documented procedures for audits, inspections on factories and quality control; withdrawal of samples of production and testing; in addition to providing technical advice to these factories in the field of quality control and improvement. He pointed out that the license was canceled for (11) factories to use the Quality Mark during the year 2017 due to non-compliance with the requirements of the General Technical Regulation of the Saudi Quality Mark or failure to implement the renewal procedures for the use of the Quality Mark.

     Deputy Governor for Conformity and Quality expressed that SASO, as part of its efforts to develop the Saudi Quality Mark, qualified conformity assessment bodies were allowed to enter the process of awarding the Mark according to the registration and authorization systems, in addition to the best international practices in this field. A partial authorization agreement was signed to provide conformity assessment services to grant licenses for the use of the Saudi Quality Mark with (3) conformity assessment companies.