Strengthening the Compliance of the OIC Member States
to International Standards
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a National Quality Plan. This plan involves the modernization of EOS, EGAC, the Industrial Control
Authority, and the Society for Chemistry, in addition to other ministries and organizations concerned
with quality. The quality plan is also part of a broader strategy for industrial modernization aimed at
raising the competitiveness of Egyptian products and improving conformity with international
standards and requirements, and at assisting existing and potential private sector enterprises to
perform in a more liberalized and competitive environment. Within this framework, the Industrial
Modernization Center affiliated to the Ministry of Industry and Trade provides assistance to private
sector enterprises in the field of standardization, metrology, and quality testing (Egypt Business
Intelligence Report, 2007). In this regards, the National Quality Institute (NQI) has also been established,
with the objective of developing individual and institutional capabilities in quality and disseminating the
quality culture in industrial sectors, by carrying out training programs and consultative services.
The Egyptian quality infrastructure has benefited from a number of technical assistance programs
leading to successful transformations of its components. A previous EU-Egypt twinning project was
carried out to support reorganization and merger of all accreditation institutions into one Egyptian
accreditation body, EGAC, to support the international recognition of the Egyptian conformity
assessment practices. Presidential Decree 248/2006 approved EGAC as the sole accreditation body in
Egypt. More specifically, EGAC benefited from a technical assistance program by the United Kingdom
Accreditation Service (UKAS) for technical assistance to comply with international requirements
(ISO/IES guides 58, 61, 62, 65, and 66 as well as ISO/IEC TR 17010 and 17020). In 2009, EGAC achieved
full recognition by both the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) and the
International Accreditation Forum (IAF). Recognition is renewed on a four-year basis according to
performance. EGAC is also an associate member in the European Cooperation for Accreditation (EA),
and carries out accreditation assessment services in the Middle East and North Africa region in
cooperation with UKAS.
EGAC currently benefits from technical assistance within the second phase of the EU-Egypt twinning of
quality infrastructure program, under the umbrella of the Support to the Association Agreement
Program (SAAP), and as part of the €20m Trade and Domestic Market Enhancement Program launched
in 2014.13 The Italian and German accreditation bodies (ACCREDIA and DAkkS respectively) provide
assistance in this regard.
Expected outcomes of the SAAP twinning program are: to achieve full harmonization of Egyptian
standards with international practice and to improve testing and conformity assessment so as to
13 The objective of this program is to assist the Ministry of Industry and Trade in the implementation of key policy reforms to help Egypt
further integrate into the global and regional economy. The program includes a number of complementary twinning initiatives to
support the national quality infrastructure in Egypt (EGAC, EOS, NIS). Most of the fund- related projects are in the pipeline.