RIYADH, 14 November — The Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) will shortly open a metrology laboratory which will serve the needs of the Arab world, including the GCC states, Dr. Khaled Y. Al-Khalaf, director general of SASO, said yesterday. He was speaking at the launch of SASO’s website by Minister of Commerce Osama Faqeeh.

Earlier, the commerce minister provided an overview of the progress achieved during the 20-year reign of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd. He said that when SASO came into being in 1982, the number of employees was 100, of whom 90 percent were non-Saudis. Today, Saudis constitute 99 percent of the total work-force of 500. He gave out these statistics to underline the march of Saudization during the last two decades.

The SASO website contains 300 pages of text, of which 35 pages have been devoted to the organization’s achievements during the last decades. There is also reference to the measures taken by SASO in conjunction with the Ministry of Commerce for protecting the consumers against imitations and other fraudulent practices.

The occasion was also marked by the visit of citizens, university students and schoolchildren to the SASO headquarters, where they saw its laboratories and other facilities. They were briefed by Dr. Al-Khalaf and his staff.

Faqeeh said SASO’s budget since its inception witnessed a 40-fold increase during the period — from SR2 million to SR80 million this year. The number of standards also surged from 300 to 2,000, in addition to thousands of others under study. Then, SASO’s mandate was confined to setting standards, while today it encompasses a whole range of new activities relating to consumer protection.

An important element of this activity, he pointed out, was the Quality Mark, which has been approved for the locally manufactured products of 140 companies. This is in addition to 2,000 export certificates issued for various food products as part of a program for the promotion of halal food.

Referring to the first phase of SASO’s quality control laboratories, Dr. Al-Khalaf said they consist of testing facilities for food, chemical and petroleum products as well as textiles. As for the upcoming laboratory, he said it will play an important role in quality control involving weights, measures and volumes.

He said the Gulf Standards and Metrology Organization, which he also heads, has approved about 1,300 unified standards for the GCC states.