17.10.2018 Ankara
“Give Direction International Standards” Standardization Summit was held at TOBB with the attendances of Industry and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank, Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu and Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) President Prof. Dr. Adem Şahin.
Speaking
at the opening of the meeting, TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu stated
that they celebrated World Standards Day together as TOBB and Turkish Standards
Institute, and said, “We are holding a panel that will share the experiences of
the private sector in this year's event themed Give Direction to International
Standards.”
Stating
that everything has a standard, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “From the big industrial
machinery to the cap of the water bottle in front of me, everything has
standard. When the standard of a product changes, if we are manufacturing
according to that standard, we shape our processes according to the renewed
standard.”
Emphasizing
that standards are related to the production and the way of doing business,
TOBB President said, “How, then, are these standards determined? Organizations
such as CEN, CENELEC, ISO, IEC determine them through their own standards committees.
Well, how does this happen? Now, there are member states of these
organizations. We are one of the member countries. Let's give an example, for
simplicity, from the water bottle in front of me. The international
organizations I just mentioned are forming a committee for this product. In
this committee, many countries have chairs. Many countries like France, Germany
and Italy have a chair. Actually, we have a chair. But the industrialists or
traders of France, Germany, Italy and many other countries have thought that
the issue is important, while some of our chairs have been vacant until now. So
far, someone has set standards for us. We just watched and had to do what they decided.
From time to time, determined by the production standards, some markets have
experienced difficulties.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
emphasized that with standardization committees, traders and industrialists
will be able to eliminate the threats to production of the country by preparing
for the possible standard changes and annotating the changes and gaining the
opportunity to share a great experience in this field.
Calling
on the private sector, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “If we want to sell more goods to
the world, we have to work on these committees. That is why we should represent
Turkish industry more in these places. We can achieve this with a more
successful result with the participation of the private sector.”
Hisarcıklıoğlu
stated that they will provide standardization training for private sector employees
as TOBB and Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) and expect support from TSE to
increase the participation of private sector committees.
- Minister of Industry and
Technology Mustafa Varank
Industry
and Technology Minister Mustafa Varank stated that if Turkey is to become more
powerful in the global market it must take an active role in the
standardization organizations, “The business world should join with thousands
or even tens of thousands representatives in the standard formulation process.”
Varank
said that the common standards which gain global identity are important and act
as a bridge between producers and consumers.
Varank
pointed out that the actors who want to be successful in international
competition are taking an active role in the standard making process. The
producer who sets the standard enters the market early and takes over.
Developed countries are actively participating in standardization activities in
order to maintain their superiority in global trade. These countries are trying
to dominate in countries with weak standard infrastructure, for example, they
tend to provide part of their assistance to underdeveloped countries on the
condition of receiving services from their own institutions, so that their producers
have advantage when entering these markets.
- TSE President Şahin
Head
of TSE Dr. Adem Şahin stated that the Mirror Committees were established within
the TSE and added, “As an institute, we actively participate in international
standardization organizations, and by taking the opinions and suggestions of
the industrialists, entrepreneurs and academicians of our country through the
Mirror Committees, we inform the organizations as to the opinion of the
country.”
Stating
that they aim to enable industrialists to participate more effectively in
standardization work with the action plan they prepared in 2017, Şahin said, “We
foresee that our business world will stand out in the world competition with
this. But today, compared to developed countries, we find very little
participation in the Mirror Committees.”