APEC – Specialist Regional Bodies Forum Update - April 2018

At the recent 24th APLMF Meeting I advised I would provide an overview and regular updates on the work of the SRBs.

The Specialist Regional Bodies Forum (SRB)[1] was established in 2007, to bring together the SRB’s to work with the APEC Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) and other related fora.  The goal of the SRB Forum is to facilitate the implementation and development of standards and conformance infrastructure in each APEC member economy and across the region.
 
SRB SCSC meetings at APEC SOM 1 in Papua New Guinea in 25-27 February 2018.  The focus of the meeting was to have the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) SCSC members and the five Specialist Regional Bodies (SRBs) as the expert regional bodies responsible for the development of the standards and conformance infrastructure in the Asia Pacific region to have a joint meeting.  Stephen O’Brien as Convenor of the SRB Forum, on behalf of the Forum, invited all interested SCSC and economy representatives to attend an open session of the SRB Forum, as part of the SCSC 1 meeting, on Sunday 25 February 2018.
 
The purpose of this interactive session was to learn more about the recent work of SRB Forum members and the future work programme of the Forum. The session focused on how the Forum’s work programme is aligned to APEC objectives and clarify how the SRB’s can support APEC to achieve its goals and priorities.
 
The session included an opportunity for those attending to discuss current and future APEC projects or initiatives with the SRB representatives to identify potential areas where they can be enhanced through SRB member involvement. 
 
The response from the members was very positive with the APEC Secretariat encouraging member economies to consult SRBs to utilize their expertise in their respective works plan/programs for APEC funded projects. The interactive, open session was found to be informative and useful by those SCSC and SRBs representatives who attended.  As a result, the SRBs plan to hold similar open sessions at future SOM 1 Meetings.
 
The SRBs identified projects that their expertise would be of value and this was shared with the SCSC members.

​[1] APMP – Asia-Pacific Metrology Programme, APLMF – Asia Pacific Legal Metrology Forum, APLAC – Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation, PAC – Pacific Accreditation Cooperation, and PASC – Pacific Area Standards Congress