The 4th annual meeting of the Metrology Council, which operates under the umbrella of the Standards and Metrology Institute for Islamic Countries (SMIIC), was held in Istanbul on May 8, 2017, hosted by TÜBİTAK UME.

In addition to TÜBİTAK UME delegation, representatives from Afghanistan, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Burkina Faso, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Palestine, Gabon, Gambia, Guinea, Iraq, Iran, Cameroon, Libya, Mali, Pakistan, Jordan, Senegal, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia attended the meeting.

At the meeting, which is held annually with the participation of the member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and where annual activities, future plans, joint project opportunities, problems experienced and possible solution methods were discussed, the current situation of Muslim countries in the field of scientific, industrial and legal metrology, the necessary breakthroughs and priority activities to be carried out in order to make progress in these fields and possible collaborations under the leadership of TÜBİTAK UME were also discussed. 

In addition, information was exchanged on scientific studies on halal food production, standardization and test methods. 

Onur Esen, who attended the meeting as an invited speaker from the General Directorate of Metrology and Standardization of the Ministry of Science and Industry of the Republic of Turkey, gave information about the studies carried out in the field of Legal Metrology in our country, the integration of these studies into the international measurement system and the role of legal metrology in trade and economy.

Approximately 40 people from 21 member and observer Muslim countries participated in the meeting, where the presidential election of the Metrology Council, which takes place every three years, was held. TUBITAK UME Director Dr. Mustafa ÇETİNTAŞ, who has been the chairman of the last term, was elected by the Council as the only candidate to chair the Council for the next three-year period. Zijad DŽEMIĆ, Director of the Institute of Metrology of Bosnia and Herzegovina (IMBIH), will continue to serve as vice-chairman.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Benin National Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control (L'Agence Nationale de Normalisation, de Métrologie et du Contrôle Qualité, ANM) and TÜBİTAK UME to plan cooperation and joint work. 

SMIIC was established in 2010 within the Organization for Cooperation of Islamic Countries (OIC), aiming to develop national quality infrastructures in cooperation in order to eliminate incompatibilities in technical issues that constitute an obstacle to trade among Islamic countries.