Announcing the First Gulf Metrology Forum

The Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), Qatar’s Ministry of Environment, the GCC Standardisation Organization (GSO) and GULFMET held a press conference to announce the First Gulf Metrology Forum (GMF) and exhibition under the patronage of His Excellency Engineer Ahmad Bin Amer Al-Hemaidi, Qatar’s Minister of Environment. The event will take place at the Hilton Hotel in Doha, Qatar on the 14th and 15th of December, 2015.

The press conference was organised at GOIC’s headquarters in Doha and the speakers His Excellency Dr. Mohammed Bin Saif Al-Kuwari, Assistant Undersecretary for Laboratories and Standardisation and representative of the Minister of Environment, His Excellency Mr. Nabil Bin Amin Mulla, Secretary General of GSO and His Excellency Mr. Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Al-Ageel, Secretary General of GOIC. 

In his speech, GOIC Secretary General Mr. Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Al-Ageel said: “Metrology is a field that is experienced by human beings all over the world on a daily basis. Our modern societies rely on countless measuring devices to carry out daily tasks, be it personal items like watches, mobile phones and cars, or devices used to accomplish tasks such as electrical tools at home or at work. All of these devices were manufactured with finite precision, and any discrepancy might damage the users and their surroundings and societies.” 

He added: “This is how metrology was introduced to various fields to develop machines and technologies, particularly in the industrial sector where it helped stimulate economic growth and industrial competitiveness. In fact, metrology is important to other sectors as well, and any deficiencies, even the simplest of them, might have negative repercussions at the industrial and economic levels.”

GOIC Secretary General explained: “Successful applications of science and technology require good monitoring of measurements and standards used in various fields. Quantitative measurements have indeed become necessary within industrial authorities and commercial businesses. Moreover, in order to boost high precision instruments broadly and guarantee quality of products and raw materials, countries decided to establish specialised metrology and calibration centres for all products. This sector needs qualification and resources to be capable of fully offering required services. It is also key to rely on modern equipment and technologies in most industrial operations. Moreover, it is necessary to monitor machines, operations and equipment that are part of the processes and to study the market size to elaborate forecasts in various industrial fields.”  

“Reports published by international companies operating in the area of metrology revealed that the demand of metrology services will witness an increase until 2020. In fact, the recovery of the global economy is expected to be worth 824.6 million USD per year in all industrial sectors, particularly automotive, aviation, electronics, energy and others. The recovery of the global economy will also have impacts on the Gulf, resulting in a surge of investments in various fields like energy, industry, health, food and their associated services”, said Mr. Al-Ageel.  

The Secretary General further added: “GCC markets are considered global emerging metrology markets facing increasing technological challenges all over the globe. Furthermore, regional conformity assessment systems are key to the internationalisation of GCC metrology activities, not only at the level of energy industries, but throughout the various industrial sectors to fulfil the huge surge of demand of measurement services in the last decade.”

“The 1st GMF is our response to the increasing metrology requirements in today’s markets, and the result of concerted efforts between governments and technical institutions in order to accomplish common metrology objectives”, stated Mr. Al-Ageel. 

GOIC Secretary General explained that the Forum targets government and private laboratories, relevant institutions and companies, ministries of commerce, industry and environment and industrial companies operating in the following areas: oil, gas, energy, petrochemicals, metallurgy, aviation, health, electricity, electronics and medical appliances, in addition to universities, scientific research institutions and international organisations specialised in metrology and calibration. 

The main objectives of the Forum are to exchange ideas about the best means to raise public and industrial awareness to comply with industrial measurements, to assess the requirements of Gulf industries and institutions in the area of metrology, and to examine means of increasing national capacities in the field of industrial measurements. In addition to that, ideas will be exchanged on how to attract new metrology activities in various fields, international best practices to reinforce metrology infrastructure as part of quality development in member states, the role of national metrology institutes and laboratories, the experiences of member states in supporting metrology activities and local laboratories, means to cooperate with international laboratories, and finally on how to put together applicable recommendations to support metrology activities in the GCC.

His Excellency underlined the various topics of the 1st GMF, mainly raising awareness about the importance of metrology and its scientific, industrial and legal aspects, particularly in the areas of energy, health and food. He added that the Forum would present success stories from GCC countries and talk about cooperation with international institutions to develop metrology. The Forum would also foster communication between concerned parties, promote the cognitive and procedural environments and include legal aspects, researches and applications in GCC countries.

Mr. Al-Ageel concluded by thanking His Excellency Engineer Ahmad Bin Amer Al-Hemaidi, Qatar’s Minister of Environment for sponsoring the event. He also thanked the GCC Standardisation Organization (GSO) and GULFMET for their trust and cooperation to organise the 1st GMF. HE the Secretary General expressed his deepest gratitude to the sponsors for supporting this event and contributing to the success of the very first Forum of its kind to tackle metrology issues in the GCC and the world, notably the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in Qatar, Qatar Fuel (WOQOD), the Primary Health Care Corporation and MANATEQ.

Mr. Al-Ageel hoped that the Forum would result in recommendations to help develop metrology, underline its importance in building advanced societies, enact legislations and update internationally recognised technical systems and spread them in the countries of the Arabian Gulf. 

Mulla

HE Mr. Nabil Amin Mulla, GSO Secretary General delivered a speech in which he thanked GOIC for this outstanding initiative. The timing could not have been better, since we need measurements and calibration more than ever. He considered that the 1st GMF will shed light on the importance of metrology in various economic activities and industrial, economic and services sectors. According to Mr. Mulla, metrology is key to several national, regional and international organisations. It supports scientific and technological advances of societies through researches and studies issued by research centres in pioneering national metrology labs. In addition to that, most of Nobel Prizes winners worked at metrology labs and most researches and studies are published by these laboratories as well.

His Excellency stated: “This is why the GSO, since its foundation, gave particular attention to metrology activities as a key pillar of national economies in member states and an important factor to guarantee quality infrastructure. Indeed, the GSO supported metrology activities in the GCC by updating relevant legislations, aligning them with international best practices and strengthening metrology technical capacities to become internationally recognised.” He explained that when it comes to metrology legislations, the GSO issued and adopted a unified system of legal metrology regulations for all GSO member states that is in line with international legislations and meets the needs of member states at the same time.”

GSO Secretary General added: “GSO issued manuals to explain this system, making its implementation easier for states that adopted it at a national level. This unified system helps overcoming technical barriers and facilitating trade between member states and the world. It also protects the health and safety of societies, which leads to better standards of living and wellbeing. Furthermore, the unified system spreads tranquillity and peace of mind among societies by guaranteeing just trade, improving quality of industrial products and operations, protecting the environment and having fair regulations implemented in metrology-related cases.”

His Excellency continued: “To reinforce technical capacities of member states, GULFMET was founded to boost efficiency of national metrology laboratories. The objective was to gain international recognition by being in line with the international conditions. Since its foundation in October 2010, GULFMET worked on putting together a strategy and a road map to fulfil these conditions and requirements. Fortunately, we succeeded to get international recognition for GULFMET as a regional metrology authority during the last meeting of the CIPM in Paris on the 15th and 16th of October, 2015.”

“This achievement would not have been possible without the active participation of all member states in the activities of GULFMET. All members were keen to boost technical capacities and efficiency of operations. This international recognition means that member states can publish their capacities in the areas of measurements and calibration through GULFMET after a series of comparisons and quality control in member states’ national laboratories. This recognition also means that economies of member states will be capable of achieving quality control over their now internationally recognised services and products. Competition at the national level will also help guarantee and boost products and services safety,” he said.

Mr. Mulla concluded by reiterating that metrology activities have great contributions to national economies. They boost the quality of industrial products and preserve the health and safety of societies. They protect the environment and put an end to the huge financial losses by member states because of the absence of international recognition. “Therefore, the 1st GMF will be the first step to announce this international recognition and there will be a lot of cooperation between us, GOIC and member states, and particularly with Qatar’s Ministry of Environment. We will follow-up with them all to implement recommendations in 2016-2017”, he said. 

AL-Kuwari

Moreover, Dr. Mohammed Bin Saif Al-Kuwari, Assistant Undersecretary for Laboratories and Standardisation and representative of the Minister of Environment stated: “Metrology, the science of measurements, is the science that guarantees a set of necessary operations to guarantee precision in measurements. This is the reason behind the need to unify the international metrology system, boost product quality, protect consumers and the environment and facilitate trade by putting an end to unreasonable and unjustified barriers. Our daily lives are so full of measurements in a way that makes social, economic, commercial and environment aspects of our lives closely linked with various measurement tools.”

Dr. Al-Kuwari gave a number of examples to support his argument, he said: “The safety of the car you drive depends on several measurement tools like the speedometer, temperature and fuel tank levels. In the medical field, measuring pressure, temperature, radioactivity and magnetics is crucial to preserve health and safety of individuals and societies. In the area of environment, measuring air, water and soil quality is key to protect the environment. International aviation is ruled by tools that measure temperatures, wind speed and direction, weather forecasts. Last but not least, trade between various countries is based on scales, measurements and weights.”

Thus, as explained by Dr. Al-Kuwari, “metrology is a comprehensive science that includes all natural sciences and technology. Its applications highly influence human lives and activities. And the absence of precise and accurate measurements, whether on purpose or not, will result in very negative repercussions at all levels.”

He added: “This is why the State of Qatar was keen to implement an efficient, national metrology system that is based on national metrology references. In this regard, Law No. 21 of 1972 on the Unification and Determination of Measures, Scales and Weights was issued in Qatar. It was followed by Emiri Decision No. 44 of 2014 on the establishment of Qatar General Organisation for Standards and Metrology to highlight the importance of measurements at the social, economic, commercial and environmental levels. In fact, article 4 stipulates: “The Organisation, in line with the general policies of the State of Qatar, aims at improving and guaranteeing the quality of goods and materials. It has the exclusive power to: develop, adopt and publish Qatari standards for goods and products, operation modes, tests and examinations […]”

He added: “Qatar is currently witnessing a huge boom at the economic, social, human and scientific levels. Therefore, there is a real opportunity and need for the State of Qatar to create Qatar’s National Measurement and Calibration Centre (QNMCC). The centre will offer measurement and calibration services to all equipment and devices used in firms, factories, companies, laboratories, hospitals, oil and gas companies, research centres and universities in the State of Qatar.”

Al-Kuwari concluded by thanking HE Engineer Ahmad Bin Amer Al-Hemaidi, Qatar’s Minister of Environment for sponsoring this important event. He also expressed his deepest gratitude to GOIC for deploying all these efforts to organise the 1st GMF, particularly Mr. Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Al-Ageel, GOIC Secretary General, Dr. Ali Hamed Mulla, Assistant Secretary General for Industrial Projects Sector at GOIC and Engineer Hazem Al-Anqar, Consultant and Director of the Business Development and Marketing Department  at GOIC. His Excellency also thanked GSO, the strategic partner, for their cooperation, particularly HE Mr. Nabil Amin Mulla for his great efforts to support Gulf initiatives. Al-Kuwari finished by thanking the Central Laboratories Department at Qatar General Organisation for Standards and Metrology, notably consultants and specialists members of the steering and executive committees for their contributions to prepare for this important forum.

Al-Ageel, Mulla and Al-Kuwari then inaugurated the website of the 1st GMF http://gmf.goic.org.qa/Default.aspx. 

Dialogue with the journalists

During a dialogue with the journalists, GOIC Secretary General Mr. Abdulaziz Bin Hamad Al-Ageel talked about the important participation of several Gulf and international organisations such as: Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), National Measurement Institute, Australia, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science ( KRISS), International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML), Turkish National Metrology Institute, The Qatar General Organization for Standards and Metrology (QS), Qatar Armed Forces – Calibration Center, INCO Industrial Laboratories, Metrology Tech Centre in Galicia, Hael University, Automation Industries, KEYSIGHT Technologies, Fluke Calibration and Prince Sultan Military Medical City (PSMMC). He underlined the necessity to benefit from international experiences at the Gulf level. 

Answering a question on the transfer of international expertise to Gulf countries, Mr. Nabil Mulla said international recognition of GULFMET and the 1st GMF reflect the right of Gulf countries to invite international experts and benefit from their contributions. They will enrich our expertise and motivate officials and decision makers in member states to give particular attention to measurements and calibrations and seek to implement them in different fields. Thus, positive results would be yielded in the industrial sector in particular, and the economies of the countries in general.

Regarding the sustainability of the Forum and future workshops, Mr. Mulla said that GOIC and organising parties will form a committee to study recommendations and hold a second forum in Qatar or in another country in the future.

Answering a question on Qatar hosting this event, Dr. Al-Kuwari said: “It is very important for us and we are really interested in spreading the culture of metrology at all levels. Measurements are not only part of the industrial sector, but they have become key part of the social, human and health aspects of our daily lives. This is why we should understand the importance of this science at the national, regional and international levels. In Qatar, we are very interested in metrology, particularly its legal and technical aspects, which explains why we are hosting this important event.”