RIYADH, 29 May 2007 — The Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) is to offer a special award for the best quality in production and service sectors.
Announcing, details of the proposed award at a press conference held yesterday at the SASO headquarters in the capital, Dr. Hashim Yamani, minister of commerce and industry, said that the award dubbed “King Abdul Aziz Quality Award” will be given to a company whose product or service are of high quality. “The idea of the award is to encourage those in the production and service sectors to excel in their respective fields and thereby help them come out with quality product and services,” the minister said, adding that such an incentive will pave the way for state -of- the-art products manufactured from the Kingdom.
Yamani, who is also the chairman of the board of directors of SASO, said that this is going to be a prestigious award which will give national and international recognition for the winning establishment and its products will find easy access to regional and global markets by way of its award. “We have also introduced this new scheme to boost our export market by supplying quality goods,” he said.
Nabil Amin Mullah, director general of SASO, said that SASO hopes to maintain international level in the selection of the best producer. “The award will be in par with international quality awards currently awarded by some Western countries and in Dubai in the region. “We anticipate a good number of companies to participate in this contest and the details of the program will be informed to the members of the private sector in due course.” Mullah said that the program is being organized under SASO’s plan to promote standardization awareness through publicity and other means.
The Saudi Arabian Standards Organization being the sole standardization body in the Kingdom, is entrusted with all activities relating to standards and measurements which include formulation and approval of national standards of all commodities and products as well as standards concerned with metrology, calibration, marking and identification of commodities and products, methods of sampling, inspection and testing, in addition to other assignments resolved by SASO board of directors.