ATS Seeking to Overhaul
Standardization and
Accreditation Systems
Tries to put on the list of global standards Korea's technologies
in 10 next-generation growth engine sectors

With a bigger say and more influence in international standardization body, Korea will be better positioned to make its futuristic technologies global standards.
"Now that Korea is able to sit on the IEC/BC and IEC policy committee, the nation is expected to have a bigger say and more influence in reflecting our position in determining global standards. Korean experts from government and private sectors will actively collaborate for bigger roles during meetings of the ISO technical committees and subcommittees," Kim Hye-won, administrator of Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (ATS), MOCIE, said in an interview with NewsWorld. "Making the most use of the systematic channel, ATS will endeavor to put on the list of global standards our futuristic technologies in 10 next-generation growth engine sectors," she said.
The government plans to build a comprehensive national quality accreditation management system aimed at corresponding to international accreditation standards and unifying domestic size standards and establishing an infrastructure. As part of its efforts to revamp the national standardization system, the government plans to introduce "the Partner Standards Organization" in order to spur the private sector's development of standards with a potential of market relevance, she said.
"ATS is seeking to have 16 regulations and ordinances related to six ministries, including the Ministry of Environment, comply with the Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (KOLAS). It plans to provide support for having 930 laboratory and inspection institutions covered by KOLAS," she said.
She said, "ATS will make strenuous efforts to expand international recognition of the domestically tested results by expanding the use of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) logo. It will expand mutual cooperation with advanced institutions like NATA and UKAS."The following are the excerpts of the interview.
Question: Would you touch on the major international conferences ATS has participated in or will attend during September and October, and what are its achievements?
A: ATS delegates have participated in 418 international conferences, held in Korea and abroad, including the ISO General Assembly and ISO technical committees ― TC, SC and WG ― as the end of September, and they are actively endeavoring to put Korea's own technologies on the list of global standards.
To name a few achievements, Korea was elected as of the ISO Council member countries during the 28th ISO General Assembly held in Singapore this past September, and the nation has become the chairman of ISO Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO), one of the ISO three policy committees.
If Korea is reelected as a member country of the International Electrotechemical Commission Council Board (IEC/CB) during the ongoing 69th IEC General Assembly being held in South Africa, chances are high that the country would take up a position in the IEC Standardization Management Board (SMB).
Now that Korea is able to sit on the IEC/BC and IEC policy committee, the nation is expected to have a bigger say and more influence in reflecting our position in determining global standards. Korean experts from government and private sectors will actively collaborate for bigger roles during meetings of the ISO technical committees and subcommittees. Making the most use of the systematic channel, ATS will endeavor to put on the list of global standards our future technologies in 10 next-generation growth engine sectors.
Q: Standardization has a great impact on the national competitive edge. Would you enumerate ATS's policies to promote its profile as a government agency specializing in standardization?
A: With the accelerated development of ICT and arrival of ubiquitous and technological convergence era, the global market has been unified. Standards not only provide compatibility and convenience, but also bring about such changes as control of global markets, lead to industrial and technology innovation and removal of technological barriers.
Countries are scrambling for making their own standards global ones as the day has arrived when setting a single international standard is mandatory. Such high-tech sectors like information technology, bio-technology and nano-technology have developed a pattern of setting standards prior to creation of markets, whereas standards in fields like the environment, health and safety, closely related to the quality of peoples' life, tend to be reinforced or widened.
The government is trying to establish a mechanism of integrating and spreading national standards, while promoting its size unification and standardization cooperation. Each government agency will be asked to have regulations obligating the use of national standards and reflect them in its long-term plans. In this regard, ATS is seeking to take charge of integrating and mediating national standards. The government has unified a total of 2,660 government-set specifications into national standards, accounting for current 83.5 percent, up from 75.2 percent in 2004. There are 16,094 government-set specifications of 19 government ministries and agencies, stipulated in 86 laws and ordinances. Out of the total, 2,660 specifications need to be unified with Korean Industrial Standards (KS).
It is considering making it mandatory for researchers and developers to draw up and implement standardization plans and factoring in such efforts in assessing professors and researchers' study outcomes.
As part of its efforts to revamp the national standardization system, the government plans to introduce "the Partner Standards Organization"in order to spur the private sector's development of standards with a potential of market relevance.
The government is building an infrastructure for unifying different standards of South and North Korea to promote inter-Korean economic relations in an efficient manner. It is making efforts to institute a pan-government standardization to implement a mechanism by overhauling duplicated standard systems of each ministry in a bid to lessen confusion and burden of companies and consumers.
I share comments on the need for strengthening standardization, made by Rep. Lee Kwang-jae and Rep. Kim Tae-nyun, during the 2004 and 2005 parliamentary interpellations, respectively, saying that the government is required to integrate and arbitrate these policies on an inter-ministry level.
On the other hand, recognizing the need for innovation, ATS is studying introduction of performance assessment system and a flexible organizational operation.
Q: What steps do you think should be taken to integrate the local mandatory accreditation system to upgrade laboratory and inspection accreditation for supporting exports to advanced countries?
A: Government ministries have continuously introduced new certification systems, exacerbating confusion among consumers and certification mismanagement and burdening companies. Currently, mandatory certification systems, established under 28 regulations, have been in place in 31 sectors for 10 ministries.
Several ministries have managed different assessment methods through same testing institutions, imposing stricter restrictions and technological barriers, and causing excessive workload and inefficiency. Under the situation, companies have to undergo laboratory accreditation from internationally recognized institutions after they are initially certified by local accreditation organizations.
The government plans to build a comprehensive national quality accreditation management system aimed at corresponding to international accreditation standards and unifying domestic size standards and establishing an infrastructure.
Expertise from government ministries and the private sector will be employed to introduce a system for approving PSDO accreditation institutions.
ATS is seeking to have 16 regulations and ordinances related to six ministries, including the Ministry of Environment, comply with the Korea Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (KOLAS). It plans to provide support for having 930 laboratory and inspection institutions covered by KOLAS.
ATS will make strenuous efforts to expand international recognition of the domestically tested results by expanding the use of the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) multilateral Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) logo. It will expand mutual cooperation with advanced institutions like NATA and UKAS.
The domestic inspection accreditation sector will have accession to ILAC-MRA in the future to facilitate international acceptance of the tested results, approved by KOLAS.
Q: Would you explain steps designed not only to manage the Certificate of New Technology and the Certificate of Excellent Machine, Mechanism, and Materials (EM), accredited by ATS, but also to support certified companies?
The NT, EM certification system was established to promote the use of domestically developed technologies and enhance efficiency of technology investments. The purpose of the system is to facilitate market entry of certified products. Certification needs to be exact and fair because the system offers a kind of incentives to technology developers. ATS is also trying to simplify screening, support and management procedures by taking such steps like simplifying certification procedures in the interests of technology developing companies.
ATS conducts an annual survey of certified companies to overhaul the system. A survey of 536 NT-, EM-certified companies, conducted in the early 2005, showed that the value of certified products, purchased by the preferential treatment system of public organizations surged 50.7 percent from 69.1 billion won in 2003 to 140.1 billion won in 2004. The agency provides financial support for certified companies?participation in exhibitions and publishing their publicity booklets.
The government plans to integrate and overhaul its certification systems, now managed separately by each ministry NT, EM, KT ( new technology certification by the Ministry of Science and Technology), CT (new construction technology certification by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation) and ET (new environment technology certification by the Ministry of Environment). The plan calls for, among others, offering a "New Technology Certificate" designed to facilitate commercialization of finished product prototypes and a "New Product Certificate"for promoting marketing of developed new products. Under the overhauled certification system, ATS will be responsible for facilitating marketing of domestically developed new products.
Q: In advanced countries, reliability certificates have become a major yardstick for marketing and buying products. Would you elaborate on policies designed to beef up reliability certification?
A: Reliability certification is a system under which a certificate is issued when standards on evaluating reliability tests on parts and materials are met. ATS has explored 343 kinds of evaluation standards in eight industrial fields, and based on the standards, 239 reliability certificates has been issued to 177 companies.
As part of its efforts to expand reliability certification in a bid to raise competitiveness of the parts and materials industry, ATS is seeking to beef up cooperation between suppliers and consumer companies in providing reliability-related technology and information of smaller parts and materials producers for the purpose of expanding the purchase of items marked with reliability certification; introduce an impromptu certification system to respond in real-time frequent requests for certification form the industrial community; and issue failure analysis and evaluation results reports on top of reliability certificates.
Q: What steps do you think should be taken to overhaul the Korean Industrial Standards (KS)?
A: During this year, ATS aims to institute 1,607 KS standards, all corresponding to global standards, bringing the number of total KS standards from 19,856 in 2004 to 21,221. The figure for 2005 represents an increase of 1,356 standards because 1,607 standards are newly instituted and 251 others are revoked during the year. The KS system centers around three major sectors ― futuristic industries, improvement of the quality of people's life and key industries, with such concepts as environment-friendliness, energy efficiency and the elderly and the physically disabled are being factored in.
ATS is striving to encourage the private sector? participation in standardization efforts by introducing the PSDO system and better cope with industrial changes with the aim of promoting national standardization development, while establishing a five-year national standardization development plan in keeping with industrial development in the long-term perspective, staying away from annual planning. The agency plans to arrange a procedure for reflecting national standards while protecting the intellectual property of patented and new technologies and marketing KS-certified products.
Q: Could you specify a plan to extend KS certification to such sectors as services, culture and leisure?
A: Manufacturing has grown into a key industrial field, but the demand on the standardization of service and leisure industries has been rising thanks to the advancement of knowledge and service industries and an expansion of the 40 hour-weekly work system. Fifty-two service standards have been instituted in consumer service sectors, including supplier-based funeral services. ATS will institute 15 KS standards centering on services for supporting manufacturing industry, including facility management, cargo storage and market survey, each year.
ATS has instituted KS standards of 300 graphic signs on public guidance, including subways and toilets. It also plans to standardize graphic signs on product safety.
The agency is pushing ahead with standardization of the culture industry on contacts between culture producers and consumers without interfering with creativity of cultural products.
In an effort to promote the service industry, the agency is considering upgrading the existing certification system for excellent companies offering quality services into the KS certification system.
Q: Can you explain your agency's plan to promote MRAs with other countries?
A: Korea has accelerated its negotiations on Free Trade Agreement multilateral Mutual Recognition Agreements (FTA/MRA) with 20 countries, a surge from two in 2004. Korea has concluded MRAs with Singapore on safety of electric and telecommunication gadgets.
The agency plans to hold MRA negotiations by taking into account such factors as trade with negotiation partners, accreditation system and technological reliability. MRA negotiations will be actively pushed ahead with such countries as EU, the United States and India ― states with bilateral large-volume trade and emerging markets. Accreditation management systems will be factored in to conclude MRAs among accreditation institutions of other nations. A special task force team comprising civilian experts from each field will be operated to better deal with MRA negotiation issues. nw

Administrator Kim Hye-won of Korean Agency for Technology and Standards.

Aerial view of ATS headquarters