Under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Tarek Al Hamouri, Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply  in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.The Accreditation Unit of the Jordanian Accreditation and Standardization System (JAS – AU) hosted the 6th General Assembly of the Arab Accreditation Cooperation (ARAC) and its Technical Committees held in Amman,  from 10  to 18 September 2018.

During the General Assembly meeting, the renewal elections for the next ARAC chair and technical committees’ chairs held in accordance with ARAC regulations

Amina Ahmed Mohamed, Chief Executive Officer of the Emirates International Accreditation Centre (EIAC) anonymously elected, by the GA members to be the next chair of ARAC.

In addition, it  resulted an election of:

• Eng. Meteb Al-Mizani, Director of Certification Section of GCC Accreditation Center (GAC) as Vice Chair

• Mr. Talal Al-Harashfa, Head of the Accreditation Section of the Jordanian Accreditation and Standardization System (JAS AU) as Chairman of the Technical Committee

• Eng. Lana Al-Marashdeh, Director of the Accreditation Unit of the Jordanian Accreditation and Standardization System (JAS-AU), Chairman of the Mutual Recognition Committee

• Eng. Brahim Houla – Director of Accreditation Services at GCC Accreditation Center (GAC) as Chairman of the Communication and Marketing Committee

The new ARAC’s chair, delivered a short speech and thanks with appreciation to former ARAC executive seniors and HE Eng. Mahmoud El Tayeb, the former ARAC Chair, for his tremendous efforts during his leadership of the ARAC which led to the international recognition by the international accreditation organizations IAF and ILAC.

Amina Ahmed She extends her gratitude to the former committees chairs for their efforts and the touchable success of the ARAC works during the previous period.

Many events and activities were held in conjunction with the  ARAC General Assembly.

Specialized workshops organized for assessors, peer evaluators and experts of for the member bodies on the impartiality requirements of ISO/IEC 17065 and ISO/IEC 17020. In addition to training on ISO/IEC 17025: 2017 new version, implementation and mechanisms according to the requirements of International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC).

Also, ARAC organized a regional workshop on the requirements of the new ISO/IEC 17011: 2017 for the regional peer evaluators. The training facilitator was Mrs. Roxanne Robinson, former American Association for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) Senior advisor and international accreditation expert.