Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB), an autonomous agency, has awarded accreditation certificates to six testing and calibration laboratories.
With this, the board has so far given accreditation certificates to nine testing and calibration laboratories for improving exportable products in line with the international standard, said a statement on Tuesday.
The six testing and calibration laboratories are Length and Dimension, Temperature, Time and Frequency, Volume, Pressure and Mass. The BAB is also working on giving accreditation certificates to five institutions by this year.
The newly appointed Industries Minister Tofail Ahmed handed over the accreditation certificates to Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) Director General Md Abu Abdullah.
BAB and Norwegian Accreditation have jointly awarded accreditation certificates to those laboratories. The privately-owned ITS Lab Test Bangladesh Ltd received accreditation certificate for chemical testing of readymade garments.
BAB is the statutory body established in 2006 as an autonomous organisation responsible for upgrading the quality assurance infrastructure and conformity assessment procedures in Bangladesh and enhancing the recognition and acceptance of products and services in international, regional and domestic markets.
Although the government set up the BAB seven years ago, the authorities did not deploy enough manpower to carry out the activities.
In June this year, it has attained full capacity to award accreditation certificates in favor of testing laboratory and calibration laboratory.
The BAB statement said accreditation is a recognised and acceptable international system that removes technical barriers like non-tariff to trade.
BAB is the national authority with responsibility of accreditation in Bangladesh. It offers accreditation programmes for various types of conformity assessment bodies, such as laboratories, certification bodies, inspection bodies, training institutions or persons in accordance with the relevant International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), International Electro technical Commission (IEC), and other regulatory standards and national standards.
Accreditation is a third party attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal demonstration of its competence to carry out the tasks of conformity assessment.
It is made available to different conformity assessment bodies namely testing and calibration laboratories, certification bodies, inspection bodies, training institutions and persons who perform conformity assessments.
