At Swedac’s international courses participants get an opportunity to embrace ideas of how quality infrastructure can be built in a country to meet the demands of world trade.
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Participants from Iraq at Swedac’s international course “Quality Infrastructure Development in Support of International Trade” listen to a lecture in Borås. Photo: Johan Mikaelsson
Swedac’s international courses focus on how infrastructure for quality, such as standardization, accreditation and certification, can meet international standards and support world trade.
The courses are popular, as many countries are interested in building their quality infrastructure in a way that is consistent with World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements between countries.
In October participants from Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia, Swaziland, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, South Africa, Kenya, Lesotho and Malawi attend a course.
Eunice C. Nkungula Mitunda from Malawi Bureau of Standards.
―This is very important to me, to my organization and to my country, said Eunice C. Nkungula Mitunda.
On ordinary days, she works as Certification Technician at the Certification and Inspectorate Division at the Malawi Bureau of Standards in the city of Blantyre in Malawi.
In September some thirty participants came from cities across Iraq―Baghdad, Sulaymaniyya, Arbil, Duhok, Mosul, Kirkuk, Babylon and Basra.
One of the participants was Bradost Mamoondy from Kurdistan Organization for Standardization and Quality Control Administration.
―After 2003 there has been rapid development. A lot of construction work is going on and there are many large projects taking place, Mr Mamoondy said.
He works in Arbil, capital of the autonomous Kurdish region, in northern Iraq.
He explained that ISO standards are used in Iraq and that he believes that in the future an accreditation body might be established.
The International Secretariat at Swedac is responsible for the course. Staff from various divisions of Swedac contribute with lectures. Part of the course is held in Swedish capital Stockholm, and part in Borås, where Swedac’s head office is situated. Course participants also make field visits, for example at SP, Technical Research Institute of Sweden.
Two more courses will take place in 2011. Participants in one of the courses are from the so called Mena countries (Middle East North Africa). In the other participants are from Jordan, Tunis, Egypt and Morocco, the four countries which in 2004 signed the so called Agadir Agreement for the establishment of a Free Trade Zone.
The courses last four weeks and include legal metrology, certification, testing, inspection and finance. They are arranged by Swedac, in collaboration with AQS, and funded by Sida, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.
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Bradost Mamoondy (at right) with colleague Karzan Abdulmaged, during a break from the course in Borås.
For more information, please contact:
Elsbeth Johansson
Annica Poppius
Updated/Reviewed: 2011-10-17 15:53
+ 46 33 17 77 00
