STRUCTURE OF ISO

Membership of ISO certification is open to national standards institutes or similar organizations most representative of standardization in their country (one member in each country). Full members, known as Member Bodies each have one vote, whatever the size or strength of the economy of the country concerned. In addition, ISO certification also has two categories of membership for countries with fewer resources. They pay reduced membership fees. Although such members do not have a vote, they can remain up to date on standardization developments. Correspondent members are usually organizations in countries which do not yet have a fully developed national standards activity. Correspondent members do not take an active part in the technical work, but are entitled to be kept fully informed about the work of interest to them. Subscriber members are institutes from countries with very small economies that nevertheless wish to maintain contact with international standardization.

HOW ISO BENEFITS DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

ISO BENEFITS

ISO CERTIFICATION standards represent a reservoir of technology. Developing countries in particular, with their scarce resources, stand to gain from this wealth of knowledge. For them, ISO CERTIFICATION standards are an important means both of acquiring technological know-how that is backed by international consensus as the state of the art, and of raising their capability to export and compete on global markets. In addition to this general benefit of iso certification standards, ISO CERTIFICATION has a specific programme for developing countries, which consists of training seminars, sponsorships/fellowships and publications. iso certification also has a policy committee on developing country matters, DEVCO, with a membership of nearly 100 standards institutes from both industrialized and developing countries.

ISO AND WORLD TRADE

ISO

Together with IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) and ITU (International Telecommunication Union) - has built a strategic partnership with the WTO (World Trade Organization) with the common goal of promoting a free and fair global trading system. The political agreements reached within the framework of the WTO require underpinning by technical agreements. ISO, IEC and ITU, as the three principal organizations in international standardization, have the complementary scopes, the framework, the expertise and the experience to provide this technical support for the growth of the global market.

THE HALLMARKS OF THE ISO BRAND

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           Every participating ISO member institution has the right to take part in the development of any standard which it judges to be important to its country's economy. No matter what the size or strength of that economy, each participating member in ISO has one vote. ISO's activities are thus carried out in a democratic framework where each country is on an equal footing to influence the direction of ISO's work at the strategic level, as well as the technical content of its individual standards.

HOW ISO STANDARDS BENEFIT SOCIETY

For businesses

The widespread adoption of International Standards means that suppliers can base the development of their products and services on specifications that have wide acceptance in their sectors. This, in turn, means that businesses using International Standards are increasingly free to compete on many more markets around the world. ISO CERTIFICATION is must to maintain the business with quality.

WHY ISO STANDARDS

Between 1947 and the present day, ISO published more than 13 700 International Standards. ISO's work programme ranges from standards for traditional activities, such as agriculture and construction, through mechanical engineering, to medical devices, to the newest information technology developments, such as the digital coding of audio-visual signals for multimedia applications.

WHAT IS ISO

ISO is known as International Organization for standardization.   Because "International Organization for Standardization" would have different abbreviations in different languages ("IOS" in English, "OIN" in French for Organisation internationale de normalisation), it was decided at the outset to use a word derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal". Therefore, whatever the country, whatever the language, the short form of the organization's name is always ISO.