The 11th Annual Meetings and General Assembly of the Arab Accreditation Cooperation ARAC were held between 08th December to 14th December 2023 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hosted by the Saudi Accreditation Center (SAAC).

More than 100 participants from Arab Accreditation Bodies and stakeholders took part in these meetings, where significant achievements were made, mainly including the enhancement of the ARAC MLA signatories’ recognition scopes, the extension of the ARAC MLA structure, and the election of the new ARAC Executive Committee members.

On the margins of these annual meetings, capacity-building activities have been conducted for ARAC Accreditation Bodies members, and a stakeholders awareness workshop was organized by SAAC for accredited Conformity Assessment Bodies and ARAC stakeholders community, which aimed at increasing the understanding of stakeholders in Saudi Arabia on the value of accreditation and accredited services, and in particular, for regulators to recognize and accept accredited conformity assessment results covered under the ILAC MRA, IAF MLA and ARAC MLA. In addition, the final Steering Committee meeting of the UNIDO-SIDA project was successfully organized.

The 11th Annual Meetings and General Assembly of ARAC is another step forward towards strengthening all interested parties’ confidence in accreditation and enhancing ARAC as the leading accreditation group facilitating regional and global trade and supporting sustainable development.