The Gulf Cooperation Council Accreditation Centre - Secretary-General Visit to HKSTP Laboratories

We were honor that Dr. John Ho (Accreditation Officer, HKAS) accompany with Secretary-General from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Accreditation Centre to visit Laboratories of the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) on 2nd Dec 2015. Mr. Nabil A Molla (Secretary-General, GCC Accreditation Center (GAC)) was invited by the HKSAR Government to visit Hong Kong. The aim of the visit is to enable selected people from around the world who have a strong interest in Hong Kong to see the place first hand, and through site visits and meeting with people to acquire a better understanding about the situation in Hong Kong, about its economy, and its opportunities and problems. The main theme of the visit was “an overview of share facilities for testing and certification industry provided by the Government’.

In the beginning, I briefed the background of HKSTP and our Technology Support Centre (TSC). Then we took the photo in front of my office.
(Right: Dr. John Ho (HKAS), Mr. Nabil A Molla (GAC), Mr. YC Lee (HKSTP) and I)

After that we visited Wireless Communications Test Laboratory (WCTL) and Reliability Laboratory (RL). Mr. YC Lee (Senior Manager, TSC, HKSTP) introduced our new 3D printer and its products to Mr. Molla.

Then we went to Biotech Centre and took a photo in 7/F which could look back to the Golden Egg.

In this floor, we visited to the Probe and Test Development Centre (which operated in the class 10000 clean room). Mr. YC Lee explained the 3D SiP technology to the guest. We took a photo in front of the show room.

After that we went to Biotech Support Centre and our engineer demonstrated different biotechnology equipment.

The most advance DNA sequencer was demonstrated. We also visited to Material Analysis Laboratory and our engineer briefed the operation SEM and XPS to the guest.

Finally, I led visitors into Charles K. Kao Auditorium (also known as the “Golden Egg”). It is a lecture theater with 283 seats. I took a photo with Mr. Molla under Golden Egg.

Inside the auditorium, Mr. Molla was taken a photo in the stage and we would like to invite him to be our guest speaker when he came to Hong Kong next time.

Mr. Molla took a photo in the VIP room inside the Golden Egg.

At the end, we took a photo in front of the Golden Egg.

I would like to introduce the background of GCC, GSO and GAS below.
GCC
The full name of GCC is ‘The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf’ which consists of seven member states, viz. United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait and Yemen. The technical infrastructure of GCC is as follows:
(i) Unified standards and technical regulations (through GSO);
(ii) a common legal framework;
(iii) common National Metrology Institutes;
(iv) a regional metrology organization;
(v) a multi-economy accreditation body (i.e. GAC); and
(vi) a regional accreditation cooperation.
The main objective of GCC is to achieve a single market with economic integration and customs union among the GCC member states, leading to facilitation of the intra GCC trade as well as international trade through elimination of trade technical barriers.

GSO
The full name of GSO is ‘the GCC Standardization Organization’. It is operating under the GCC to fulfill its objective to achieve ‘a single market with economic integration and customs union among the GCC member states’ as well as concluding MoU with GCC trading partners, through harmonization of standards, technical regulations and conformity assessment procedures.

GAC
The full name of GAC is ‘the GCC Accreditation Centre’. It is a multi-economy accreditation body created by the GSO Council on 8 May 2013. It started providing accreditation service on 1 January 2014. GAC is a full member of APLAC.

Reference:
HKAS - http://www.itc.gov.hk/en/quality/hkas/about.htm
HKSTP Lab - http://www.hkstp.org/en-US/Services-Programmes/Technology-Support-Laboratory-Services/Overview.aspx#.VMD_TUeUchA
GCC Accreditation Center – http://gcc-accreditation.org/gac/
GCC Standardization Organization - http://www.gso.org.sa/gso-website/?lang=en
20150122: The Gulf Cooperation Council Accreditation Centre and Standardization Organization representatives visit to HKSTPC Laboratories - http://qualityalchemist.blogspot.hk/2015/01/the-gulf-cooperation-council.html