Trade & Investment System, represented by the General Authority for Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization, has accomplished 10 technical regulations, since the launching of its initiative “Product Safety Program", within the National Transformation Program, it is also working on the draft of “The Saudi Regulation for the Safety of Products”, in an effort to ensure the absence of any defects in the products, which may cause direct or indirect risk on the consumer, besides guarantee the conformity of such products with the Saudi standards. The General Authority for Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization is developing a form for the safety of products, as well as launching the Programs of the Technical Regulations for the Product Safety, and determine the penalties for violating the technical regulations.
The Program of Product safety aims to deliver the products to the Saudi market free of any defects, and safe, through developing an integrated action plan, to include the necessary procedures, standards and regulations that are consistent with the global, professional, and approved practices. Trade and Investment System has great aspiration, through this program, to develop a high-efficiency system to measure the safety of products in the market, through certain mechanisms and procedures that go in line with the technical regulations, especially the basic technical requirements relating to safety, health, environmental protection, energy conservation, besides ensuring the effectiveness of the services provided by the legislative and control authorities, to verify and ensure the product safety, through the conformity of such products with the Saudi Standard specifications.
Trade and Investment System is working, through this program, on four major hubs, including the development and updating the regulations supporting the safety and protection of consumer rights, as well as identifying the responsible of the product damage or defect accurately. The General Authority for Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization will launch a number of regulations and mechanisms, such as the Saudi System for the Safety of Products, Specifications and Quality System, in addition to updating a number of current regulations relating to guarantee fair business in the Saudi market.
The program also includes the development of the Saudi Technical Regulations. In that regard, the General Authority for Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization has issued ten technical regulations during the current year, covering more than 500 products, and request the commitment with 1,500 standard specifications. The third axis of the product safety program is dealing with developing a system for accepting and approving the conformity assessment bodies, which will verify and ensure the efficiency and qualification of the authorities granting the conformity certification or the laboratories that are testing the items in the exporting countries, those bodies will be approved by the said organization, and then to be appointed by MCI, according to the common international practices applied in this field. Notably, the said Organization had already approved ten bodies for conformity certification during 2016 AD. Furthermore, the Product Safety Program includes a hub for setting up conformity indicators, where the said organization is working currently on developing a Safety Index Guide for the Saudi market. Therefore, samples of the targeted products are bought from different cities and towns of the Kingdom, then they are tested, and the results are analyzed, to know the level of the product safety, and then the general index or indicator is obtained for each year of the National Transformation Program, looking forward to the desired goal.