The 13^th Plenary meetings of PAC were held in Hanoi, Vietnam from 27 May – 4 June 2006. 66 delegates, representing PAC members, certification bodies, two specialist regional bodies and other interested parties attended the meetings

Members thanked BoA / STAMEQ for their hard work in arranging and hosting the meetings, and agreed that the facilities and hospitality were all that could be desired.

PAC Membership: PAC formally welcomed two new Associate members during the official dinner held on 1 June. They are the Asian Accredited Certification Bodies Federation (AACBF) and the Japan Information Processing Development Corporation (JIPDEC). This brings the number of PAC Members to 23, with 17 Full members and 6 Associate Members.

New Executive Committee Member for PAC: Following the resignation of Mr Suprapto from the PAC Executive Committee due to a transfer of his duties within KAN, a vacancy was announced on the PAC Executive Committee and nominations were requested in May 2006. An election was held during the Plenary on 2 June, and Mr Ridzwan Kasim of DSM was elected.

Mr Kasim joins PAC Chair, Ms Elva Nilsen (SCC), Vice Chair Mr Shinichi Iguchi (JAB) and members Mr Tony Craven (JAS-ANZ), Mr B Venkataraman (NABCB), Mr Xiao Jianhua (CNAB), Dr Peter Herrmann (IIOC) and Secretary Ms Belinda Mort.

Members welcomed Mr Kasim to the position. They thanked Mr Suprapto for his efforts on behalf of PAC over the past 3 years, especially his hard work as Chair of the Developing Programs Committee, and wished him well in his new job.

Cooperation amongst APEC Specialist Regional Bodies: Members welcomed the participation of Mr Hoc, Chair of PASC, at the Plenary and the commitment of both organizations to closer cooperation in future. Members also noted that agreement has been reached in principal for a MoU with APLAC, and it was anticipated that this would be signed later in the year.

Technical Committee: The Hanoi meeting was chaired by Ms Joan Brough-Kerrebyn of SCC. Members discussed the ongoing revision of all PAC documentation to ensure compliance with the requirements of the IAF A series documents and with ISO/IEC 17011. Other issues of discussion included the Cross Frontier Policy, auditor competence, technical issues arising from PAC training courses during the preceding 12 months and PAC questions for IAF consideration.

PAC Promotion: Mr Tony Craven of JAS-ANZ chaired the meeting. Members agreed to align the promotions activities of PAC more closely to the IAF, by changing the name of the PAC promotions committee to the PAC Communications and Marketing Committee. Major achievements over the past 12 months were the transfer of the PAC newsletter format from hard copy to electronic, and revamping of the PAC promotional CD to include new PAC MoU and MLA signatories.

Members agreed that priorities for the coming 12 months would include the publication of at least two newsletters, re-focussing the newsletter to include the whole supply chain, continual improvement of the PAC promotional CD, and the development of a promotional brochure for the PAC membership region.

PAC Developing Programs: Mr Venkataraman of NABCB chaired the meeting in place of Mr Suprapto. Members discussed current and future training initiatives for PAC.

Three courses have been approved for 2006, with one of them held to date. 38 delegates attended an Information exchange session held over two days during the plenary meetings. Day one covered the Cross Frontier accreditation policy and Day two covered the contents of Accreditation courses.

The second course, on Inspection (ISO/IEC 17020), will be held in Singapore on 6 – 7 September as a joint initiative with APLAC. Details of this course have been sent to all members and posted to the PAC website ISO/IEC 17021 requirements for both programs, including harmonized understanding/implementation of requirements.

It is also planned to hold a course on ISO/IEC 22003 once this standard has been approved and issued. This course will either be held late in 2006 or early in 2007, depending on the standard’s release date. Details will be notified to members and posted on the PAC website as they become available.

Members approved the following training courses to be held during 2007.

• ISO/IEC 17021 – to be held in conjunction with the 2007 Plenary meetings in Singapore;
• Product Certification – to be held in Indonesia, date to be confirmed; and
• ISO/IEC 27006 to be held in Japan, date to be confirmed.

A workshop for trainee peer evaluators may also be held, depending on demand. Details of all courses will be advertised to members and on the PAC website.

Experienced Peer Evaluator Workshop: The workshop was again well attended by PAC team leaders and team members. Mr Phua Kim Chua of SAC (Singapore) chaired the workshop. The morning session was spent developing a course for training new peer evaluators, and the afternoon session discussed specific technical issues with an aim to harmonisation of understanding of the various guidance documents and improvement of peer evaluation processes.

Open Forum. The Open Forum was very well attended, with 12 Certification body representatives joining the PAC members for an afternoon of lively discussion and exchange of information. Topics covered included areas of mutual cooperation between the newly formed AACBF and PAC, opportunities for both organizations to support and promote the work of each other and accredited certification throughout the region, improving the credibility of accredited certification and harmonisation of application of standards amongst accreditation bodies.

PAC MLAs

• Environmental Management Systems (EMS). The PAC MLA for EMS continues to expand, with 10 signatories to date being; JAS-ANZ (Australia and New Zealand), SCC (Canada), CNAB (PR China), KAN (Indonesia), JAB (Japan), KAB (Korea), DSM (Malaysia), ema (Mexico), NAC (Thailand) and TAF (Chinese Taipei). PAC is currently processing an application from NABCB (India) and another member has indicated its intention to apply during 2006.
• Quality Management Systems. There are currently 14 members of the PAC MLA for QMS, those being: JAS-ANZ (Australia and New Zealand), SCC (Canada), CNAB (PR China), HKAS (Hong Kong, China), NABCB (India), KAN (Indonesia), JAB (Japan), KAB (Korea), DSM (Malaysia), ema (Mexico), BAS (Philippines), SAC (Singapore), NAC (Thailand) and TAF (Chinese Taipei). IAS (Iran), PNAC (Pakistan) and STAMEQ (Vietnam) have applied to join the QMS MLA and their applications are currently being processed.
• Product. The PAC MLA for Product has three signatories at present, those being: JAS-ANZ (Australia and New Zealand), SCC (Canada) and ema (Mexico). Applications from ANSI (USA), KAS (Korea), SAC (Singapore) and TAF (Chinese Taipei) are currently being processed and several other members have advised that they will apply within the next 12 months.

PAC Annual Meeting 2007: The 14th Plenary of PAC will be held in Singapore in late May or early June 2007. Details will be posted on the PAC website later in the year. Our thanks to SAC for offering to host the meeting.

Further information on PAC is available on our Website – www.apec-pac.org or contact the PAC Secretary, Ms Belinda Mort at telephone +612 6559 1370, FAX +612 6559 1374 or email - belindamm@tsn.cc.