KTL Braces For
Challenges in Global
Certification
Market
Commits itself on innovations
Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL) President Hong Jong-hee says Korea will have to brace for such upheavals as the opening of the local mandatory certification market.
KTL President Hong said, "it is inevitable for Korea to be forced to pry open the mandatory certification market - allowing foreign certification agencies to certify Korean-made products as Korean agencies like KTL do - within three or four years.
KTL President Hong noted that global and domestic certification markets have already undergone dramatic changes. Six foreign certification institutions have been already permitted to certify Japanese-made electrical products in the Japanese market, so Korea will be likely required to open the Korean mandatory certification market within three or four years, he said. Currently, the domestic testing market has already been opened to foreign competition, with such agencies as UL having provided testing services through their private testing institutions to meet rising demands.
KTL, under the control of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy, is one of Korea's representative integrated reliability certification institutions. Despite its current higher standing, the KTL president stressed that his organization is grappling with challenges the global certification market.
KTL President Hong has been with testing, certification, standards and safety sectors for the past 27 years. He took office as the fourth president of Korea Testing Laboratory last May 2. He began his official career with a post as an officer in the Office of Industry Promotion after passing a state-administered technology examination in 1977. KTL President Hong discussed such topics as the impact on the opening of the testing and certification markets during his recent interview with NewsWorld.
KTL is making its strenuous efforts to explore new business arenas as part of steps to adjust the rapidly changing business environment.
"If the ripple effects of market-opening hit Korea in three or four years, certification organizations will have to go future-oriented strategies by predicting future developments and system changes, or any organization which sits idle or remains complacent would collapse,"he warned.
The KTL president said his organization will endeavor to cultivate experts in an effort to help the government work out future strategies and policies on national certification as well as expand its overseas presence and explore new markets abroad.
In this vein, KTL has dispatched a staff officer to the MOCIE to participate in a project on the advancement of the industry for aging population, or widely known as the "Silver Industry."The officer is in charge of helping the government draw up such ways as promoting mutual cooperation and securing a competitive edge.
KTL also concluded an agreement on promoting cooperation with Inje University in Gimhae in connection with silver industry cluster projects.
KTL is also dealing with medical devices and environment areas. KTL has so far primarily focused on testing, assessment and certifications, but things have changed at a fast pace with the market having been already opened in many arenas, Hong said.
Amidst a swirl of changes, KTL President Hong places priority on the future role of Asia Network Forum, a community of Asian certification organizations. Hong concurrently serves as president of ANF and the secretariat of this community is based in Korea. Korea was selected as the third-term presidency state of ANF last April.
KTL President Hong said he was confident that ANF will play an important role of the community of certification organizations which is able to bring economic development and prosperity in the Asian region and to cop with the world trends in the certification field. He said he was convinced that ANF will contribute to facilitate trade in the Asian region and be center for certification organizations and their technologies.
The five founding members of ANF are the China Quality Certification Center (CQC), the Japan Quality Assurance Organization (JQA), KTL, the PSB Corporation (PSB) of Singapore, and the Electronic Test Center (ETC) of Chinese Taipei. CQC now controls 80 percent of the Chinese certification market.
The international recognized body, ICE has apparently put pressure on ANF to behave within the ICE framework. Unlike ICE, he said, ANF covers even such sectors as environment and biology areas and ANF's activities are aimed to facilitate ICE's.
ANF is to convene a congress in Kyoto, Japan, in coming November to discuss the overall direction of the organization, including promotion of mutual certification scheme.
The world market is getting more and more competitive regardless of existence of borders. Moreover, the formation of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA) among major economies is being widely increased, and this phenomenon gives certification organizations like KTL the new momentum of challenges with opportunities, he said.
MRA has became the precondition of signing an FTA, as shown in a case concerning Korea's conclusion of a FTA with Singapore. MRA emerged as the thorniest issue during negotiations on an FTA between South Korea and Singapore, as Singapore insisted on recognizing certifications of products being handled via the island country in return for recognizing South Korean certification of products coming from the Gaeseong Industrial Complex in North Koreas. The two countries finally agreed to MRA, he said.
KTL has now signed MOUs on certification with 49 certification organizations from 32 countries around the world.
Since his inauguration as fourth president of KTL, Hong has taken the initiative in administrative reforming. A case in point is an overhaul of promotion and payment system based on performance. The KTL president said he has delegated much of his power to his deputies and division and team heads to ensure a fast decision-making, while KTL has worked out monthly, quarterly, yearly and long-term business plans and strategies in a bid to promote efficiency and preempt time waste.
KTL is building a large-scale laboratory in Ansan (called Ansan KTL) on a leased site on Techno Park in cooperation with Hanyang University Ansan Campus to provide testing, assessment and certification services to about 12,000 tenant SMEs in Banwol, Shihwa and Namdong industrial complexes. The Ansan KTL will operate an integrated reliance certification support center, commissioned by the MOCIE. nw

Asia Network
Forum
(ANF)
At a Glance

The background

East Asia has emerged as a global economic center with the largest manufacturing base to provide electrical and electronics products with components in the world. Many manufacturers in the region are trading their products across the Asian market, but they often encounter barriers. One of such barriers is product certification and approval to the market since each Asian economy requires a certain certification or approval for those products.
To reduce such barrier and facilitate trade in the region, the ANF was established in 2000 by five founding members - the China Quality Certification Center (CQC), the Japan Quality Assurance Organization (JQA), the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL), the PSB Corporation (PSB) of Singapore, and the Electronic Test Center (ETC) of Chinese Taipei.
The primary objectives of ANF are as follows: - To harmonize technical standards and conformity assessment requirements for electrical and electronics products to move seamlessly within Asia; cooperate on enhancing technical competence and capability amongst member organizations; create, develop, promote and operate a single electronic platform to facilitate access to regulatory and product compliance information,; and play a leading role in reflecting Asian opinions in international meetings on key international standards and conformity assessment requirements

Main activities and accomplishments

ANF consisting of five committees and three working groups has involved various activities. In particular, committee 3 which KTL takes the chairman works on technical cooperation field aiming to minimize technical differences among members and to achieve same level of technical capabilities.
In addition to technical cooperation, ANF is expanding its activity to inter-continental Relation area by founding committee 4 in 2003 to cope with world certification market trends and its changes such as emergence of new international regulations and standards. This is a part of action to consolidate Asian certification bodies' position in the world and to reflect Asian voices to international organizations.
One of the most outstanding accomplishments of ANF activity is conclusion of Multilateral Agreement (MLA) signed by the five members in April 2004.

Based on Bilateral Agreement among members, MLA allows for the mutual recognition of certification of electrical and electronics products in five economies. As a test done by any member certification body will be recognized by the other four members, this is a basis of one-stop scheme representing one test for multiple market access. It is expected that not only MNCs but also SMEs will be benefited under the scheme by reducing time to market and cost for obtaining certifications.
To deal with certification application and requirement from customers with seamless process, integrated e-commerce site called Sibercert has been launched in 2002. Customers can easily access to various certification information and apply multiple certification services with a single interface.

Future Tasks

Although ANF has actively worked on various areas, there are still tasks left for taking a step forward to future development. Establishing administrative process and verifying major technical considerations such as national differences should be settled to carry out efficient one-stop services since a well organized process will bring more benefits to our customers. In this point of view, collaboration among government agencies of all members is also required as most of members' certification schemes are highly relevant to the government regulations in accordance with its policies. Consequently, a method to improve cooperation between government agencies needs to be considered.
Besides the technical and administrative cooperation, ANF plans to enhance marketing activities for raising awareness of ANF toward industries and manufactures in the Asian region so as to give them practical benefits. Newly designed brochures and posters introducing ANF and its services will be distributed to manufacturers and seminars or conferences will be organized more often for suppliers and industry representatives to help them understand ANF and its services.
Finally, promoting ANF to non member organizations those which are based in Asia is under way now. As ANF aims to be a representative association of Asian certification and conformity assessment organizations ultimately, it tries to lead those nations to participate its activities for example, by inviting them as observers to ANF General Assembly which is held once a year.

A general view of Korea Testing Laboratory head office in Guro-gu, Seoul
Hong Jong-hee, president of Korea Testing Laboratory and concurrently president of Asia Network Forum
A signboard on the KTL facade reads 'Advance to the World together with Businesses, and Head toward the Future with KTL.