ESMA awards conformity certificates to 12 local and international companies

Speaking on the occasion, H.E. Waleed Bin Falah Al Mansouri, Director General of ESMA said "We are very proud to award the certificates to the first batch of companies. These companies include major manufacturers of lubricating oil, detergent powder, toys, automotive batteries, synthetic detergents, paint as well as traders. These companies include National Paint Factories Company, Emirates Lube Oil Co, Exide Al Dobowi Ltd, Ditra, RNA Resources Group Ltd., "Land Mark", International Paints, Quepet, King of Hobbies, Bhatia Brothers and Al Khaleej Metal Coat".

"The scheme currently applies to five major product categories, including toys, lubricating automotive oils and fluids, paints, and automotive batteries. It includes verification and review of technical and test reports by the staff of the Emirates Conformity Assessment Scheme (ECAS)" added Al Mansouri.

His Excellency also clarified that ESMA is working towards achieving several national goals, including safety, health and environmental protection, by ensuring that commodities are of accepted quality and comply with the approved standards of the UAE, and are in line with scientific advancement in standardization and metrology, quality control and their management systems.

Al Mansouri emphasized that the Emirates Conformity Assessment Scheme (ECAS) ensures that regulated products are free from several risk factors. The manufacturer benefits from publicizing compliance and it makes the release of products faster, and minimizes the risk of rejection.

He added that the Scheme applies to five major product categories, either locally manufactured or imported to the UAE. More products will be added gradually to reach more than 50 product categories in the foreseeable future. He added that newly regulated products will be advertised at least 2 months prior to implementation, in order to allow sufficient time for local manufacturers and importers to comply with the requirements of the scheme.

At the end of the awards ceremony, his Excellency expressed his thankfulness and gratitude to the manufacturers and importers who voluntarily subjected their products to the compliance scheme. He also urged companies which did not apply for certification thus far to obtain the Certificate of Conformity, which is considered the start for the new schemes that ESMA intends to launch soon, such as the Conformity Mark Scheme and the Quality Mark Scheme.

"The chance will be much greater for companies who have acquired the Certificates of Conformity to obtain the Conformity Mark and the Quality Mark, which can be printed on the products and thus improve the chances of marketing the product" he added.

Al Mansouri also pointed out that this certificate helps when implementing the mutual recognition scheme between the GCC countries and ESMA is playing a major role in the GCC standardization. He also indicated that ESMA has sent experts to participate in the GCC meetings as a preliminary step before signing the agreements between the GCC countries.