Accreditation Board set to get international recognition by Jan

State-owned Bangladesh Accreditation Board (BAB) is likely to get international recognition by January next.
This will help promote the country's exports and reduce time and money in getting foreign official recognition required by the buyers, sources said.
A two-member team of the Asia Pacific Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (APLAC) will visit Bangladesh in November to assess the certifications that were issued by the BAB to different local testing and calibration laboratories.
After submission of the report by the team to the APLAC, there would be a formal recognition of Bangladesh that its certification for products is of international standard.
Currently, the BAB's certification is not mandatory for the exporters as it is not recognised by the international organisation.
As per requirement by the importing countries for export products' international standard certification, local exporters get it from foreign countries at the cost of huge money and hassles.
Abu Abdullah, director general of the BAB said, "We hope after the international body visits Bangladesh and submits its assessment report to the APLAC headquarters Bangladesh would get the international community's recognition." He said, "In getting APLAC recognition, we have issued 17 certificates to different testing and calibrating labs which are more than their requirements.,"
The BAB DG said, "Currently our exporters need to rely on foreign official certifications as we are not internationally-accredited." He said after getting international recognition, it would be mandatory for exporters to get Bangladesh certifications.
The BAB has already issued certificates to shrimp exporters, readymade garment exporters and frozen food exporters.
With limited manpower, the BAB is currently seeking international recognition though it doubled the number of assessors in last two years.
An exporting company said, "We get official recognition from other countries as per our buyers' choice." He said, "Though currently it is not mandatory for us to get local recognition, once after getting the APLAC recognition, the importing countries will ask for our own accreditation at first and then they may have other country's official choices."