Standards: China intensifies co-operation with Austria

  • Announcement
2018-10-23

Standardization Administration of China signs agreement with Austria and appoints Elisabeth Stampfl-Blaha "Strategic Advisor". Austrian Standards' Director is also a member of the new curatorship of the Austrian Chinese Business Association.

Austrian Standards International – Standardization and Innovation and its Chinese partner, the Standardization Administration of China (SAC), renewed their Co-operation Agreement. The new Agreement that was signed in the margins of this year's General Assembly of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Geneva aims at contributing to the reduction of barriers to trade through intensified bilateral co-operation in the field of international standardization. In particular, the focus is on harmonizing national standards with international standards to eliminate trade barriers and to foster economic exchange between Austria and China. Stampfl-Blaha: "To that effect, there will be a comprehensive exchange of know-how and experiences."

At the same time, SAC appointed Austrian Standards' Director Elisabeth Stampfl-Blaha "Strategic Advisor". The grounds cited by SAC were her profound and long-standing experience as well as her "significant influence in the field of international standardization". Stampfl-Blaha served as Vice President Technical Management of ISO from 2012 to 2016 and previously, as a member of the ISO Council. In recent years, China has considerably expanded its activities in international standardization within the framework of ISO and considers standardization to form part of its global economic expansion strategy. With regard to participation in technical committees of ISO, China already ranks third (after Germany and the United Kingdom) and with regard to TC management, the country has reached rank 6, catching up with France and Japan. The preparation and development of standardization strategies as well as the most recent global standardization policy will be discussed at a conference in Beijing on 28 November 2018. In this setting, Stampfl-Blaha will hold a keynote address informing, for example, on how standards support the development of SMEs: "As a typical SME country, Austria can contribute very much experience here," believes the Director of Austrian Standards.

Member of the Austrian Chinese Business Association (ACBA)

As of recently, Austrian Standards is also represented by Director Elisabeth Stampfl-Blaha on the new curatorship of the Austrian Chinese Business Association (ACBA). The president of ACBA that was founded in 2010 to actively promote an improvement of economic relations and cultural exchange is Prof. Dr. Georg Zanger. The curatorship set up now is headed by former Federal Chancellor Christian Kern (President) as well as Infrastructure and Innovation Minister Norbert Hofer and Carinthia's Governor Peter Kaiser (Vice Presidents).

Stampfl-Blaha: "We view the strengthening of our relations to China as a significant contribution to increasing the opportunities for Austrian enterprises and to reinforcing our positioning as a partner for standardization and innovation."

Medienkontakt
Mirjana Verena Mully, Head of Communications

Mirjana Verena Mully

Head of Communications