The leading international standards bodies – IEC, ISO and ITU – have urged world leaders to recognize, support and adopt international standards to meet the G20 goals defined under the theme of “Recover together, recover stronger”.
The three global bodies issued the joint declaration at an official G20 side event, International Standards Summit, in Bali, hosted by the National Standardization Agency of Indonesia (BSN) with the participation of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Standardization representatives from the G20 countries endorsed the call to action.
“By referencing consensus-based international standards in their policies, world leaders achieve the priority issues goals of this G20 meeting, as well as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). International standards transform policy objectives into actionable outcomes,” said IEC Secretary-General Philippe Metzger.
The three main pillars of the 2022 G20 meeting are global health architecture, digital transformation, and sustainable energy transition. The IEC/ISO/ITU declaration underlines how international standards and conformity assessment can contribute to building a greener and more sustainable future. In addition, the declaration notes that the three international standards bodies provide an institutional framework with the participation of a broad range of stakeholders from across society.
International standards are instruments that enable the development of a harmonious, stable and globally recognized framework for the deployment and use of new technologies.
“International standards are vital to global trade and economic development. Given life by collaboration and consensus, standards can help us ensure that digital transformation benefits everyone, everywhere,” said the Director of the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, Chaesub Lee.
The Chairman of BSN, Kukuh S. Achmad, assessed that standards and conformity assessments can help the world to recover together, recover stronger, in a sustainable way. “In the last two years, the global pandemic has affected every aspect of people’s lives, from health, education, to international trade. The process of handling the global pandemic cannot be separated from the support of international standards,” he said.
In the International Standards Summit 2022, standardization figures from abroad explained the correlation of international standards with priority issues of G20 2022 and SDGs. This G20 Side Event also invited the Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia, Airlangga Hartarto, and the Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Jean-Marie Paugam.
Sergio MujicaSecretary-General of ISO