TÜBİTAK UME hosted the 7th Annual Meeting of the Standards and Metrology Institute for the Islamic Countries (SMIIC) Metrology Council on 28-29 January 2020 in Gebze, Kocaeli in Turkey.
44 participants from 19 member and associate countries who are member of The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and SMIIC, Afghanistan, Benin, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Iran, Cameroon, Kyrgyzstan, Northern Republic of Cyprus, Malaysia, Mali, Uzbekistan, Senegal, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Tunisia, and Uganda participated in the meeting.
The participants have been informed on the establishment of the Excellence Metrology Center for Islamic Countries (EMCIC) in Turkey, its operations and the steps to be taken in order to realize the project where TÜBİTAK UME is leading its presidency. The establishment configuration of the project and finalized working plan have been approved by the member states during the meeting.
In addition, with the latest developments in the SMIIC Metrology Council (SMIIC MC) and the national metrology bodies of the member countries, possible solutions for the achievement of measurement unity within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member states, halal product certification, overcoming technical barriers in trade and integration into the international measurement system and possible contributions of TÜBİTAK UME in these fields were also discussed.
The developments that have been done within the framework of the SMIIC MC Capacity Building Program (TCDP) and its importance have been also emphasized by the member states and the applications are being extended until the end of February 2020. The second cycle of this programme is decided to be executed both by Saudi Arabia and Bosnia-Herzegovina together with Turkey.
SMIIC was established in 2010 within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which aims to develop national quality infrastructures in cooperation with Islamic countries in order to eliminate the technical barriers to trade.