Standards will play a central role in the development of the nation, say ministers from Indonesia who opened the recent ISO Days event in Jakarta on 3-5 June 2015.
The event was organized in partnership with the National Standards Body of Indonesia,Badan Standardisasi Nasional (BSN), ISO’s member for the country, and attracted almost one hundred participants from industry, academia, certification, conformity assessment bodies, and other organizations.
Indonesian Minister of Research, Technology and Higher Education, Prof. Dr. Muhammad Nasir, who has oversight for BSN, highlighted in his opening address that standardization is by no means new to the country.
Indonesia became a member of ISO in 1955, exactly ten years after the national freedom proclamation in the country, he explained. “This is important as it reminds us that our founding fathers realized quite some time ago that standardization is an important mechanism for our national development.”
The landscape of competition is changing
The Indonesian Minister of National Development Planning, Dr. Andrinof A. Chaniago, also spoke at the opening of the event, outlining the Indonesian five-year plan for development and the role of standards within it.
“In economic terms, the five-year development plan aims to rank Indonesia in the upper level of medium-income countries,” he said, but went on to explain that, in the era of globalization, development challenges are complex.
“World trade, both multilateral and bilateral, has changed the landscape of competition,” he asserted. “Indonesian companies must be able to compete with companies from other countries in bidding to sell their products on the international market.” In addition, he said, with Indonesia’s growing middle class and changes to regional free trade agreements, local companies were likely to face more intense competition. “It is here that standardization can help them compete fairly with their competitors from other countries,” he explained.
Effective participation leads to benefits
The ISO Days aimed to promote further engagement of Indonesian stakeholders in standardization. As Dr. Bambang Prasetya, Director-General of BSN, explained, benefits from standards are gained not only from the implementation but also from effective participation in the development process.
“This (the benefits) can be obtained by participating actively and effectively in the process (and are) imperative to all stakeholders including industries, governments, general public and academia,” he said.
The one-day event was followed by a visit to industry, where participants had the chance to see first-hand the benefits that standards can bring to an organization. Mr. Fery Hendriyanto, Director of Pt Wika Beton, a leader in preformed concrete structures, welcomed visitors to the plant on the outskirts of Jakarta, and explained how the organization has benefitted from using nearly 90 standards - company-led as well as national and international - that cover production, operational excellence and customer services.
Connecting with industry in such a way is very important, ISO Secretary-General Rob Steele explained, adding that “standardizers need to talk the language of business, using simple messages about how standards help increase sales, lower costs and increase profitability”.