Capacity Building for Conformity Assessment for Information Technology Equipment (ITE) in ASEAN Member States

Signed in 1998, the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) commits the ASEAN Member States (AMSs) to “develop sectoral MRAs and other related cooperative activities to facilitate elimination of technical barriers to trade” within the region. These MRAs are agreements between two or more parties to mutually recognize or accept some or all aspects of one another’s conformity assessment results. The latter refers to the “systematic examination to determine the extent to which a product, process or service fulfills specified requirements.” One of these MRAs is the ASEAN Sectoral MRA for Electrical and Electronic Equipment (EEE), signed by the ASEAN Economic Ministers in 2002. This MRA aims “to facilitate the free movement of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) in the region through reduction on duplication of testing and certification for EEE manufactured in ASEAN.”

Implementation of such MRA, however, rests on the availability of human capital and competent institutions. The project Capacity Building for Conformity Assessment for Information Technology Equipment (ITE) in ASEAN Member States intends to specifically address the gap pointing to the lack of evaluation technology and conformity ability about information technology equipment (ITE), where demand in the region is expected to increase in the near future.