Successful ARAC Mid-Term meetings (Executive committee, MLA Committee, MLA Group, Peer Evaluators Working Group, Technical Committee and Communication and Marketing Committee) were held in Cairo, Egypt from 29 to 31 August 2016 hosted by the Egyptian Accreditation Council EGAC.

More than fifty delegates participated at this event including the members of ARAC committees besides the United Nations Industrial Development Organization [UNIDO], the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization [AIDMO] and EGAC representatives.

An open session for all ARAC Committees members has been organized where they updated on the following items:

• New ILAC, IAF and ARAC requirements published since the last ARAC meetings and the new documents which will be implemented during the upcoming period;
• Progress of the ILAC&IAF Evaluation process of ARAC and focused on the ARAC committee members commitments to the success of the upcoming steps, especially the evaluation of ARAC Secretariat, the witnessing of the ARAC Peer evaluations and the MLA Group members;
• Report on the updated and new ARAC management system documentations;
• Progress on the registration of ARAC as legal entity and the preparation of the business plan;
• Qualification of new ARAC Peer Evaluators,
• ARAC Strategy 2016-2021 and the upcoming steps for the implementation of this strategy by the ARAC committees: starting the preparation for the Committees strategic plans;

These meetings were achieved with fruitful results especially in terms of :

• Decision on the MLA Signatories: Dubai Accreditation Center became ARAC MLA Signatory for Product Certification;
• Review of the ARAC MLA application received so far and the planning of the upcoming ARAC Peer evaluations;
• The preparation for the 3 Peer evaluations which will be witnessed by ILAC&IAF Peer evaluation team;
• Follow up of the conducted ARAC Peer evaluations (conducted jointly with ILAC and PAC);
• Preparation for the second ARAC Peer evaluators training session which will be conducted during the period 13-16 November 2016 in Muscat, Sultanate of Oman.