The Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization (SASO) revoked the license of ten factories and suspended five others for violating the requirements of the general technical regulation for the Saudi Quality Mark last year.
It confirmed that over the past year, it developed the specifications and standards of conformity, metrology, and product safety, seeking global reliability.
Also, the organization issued 300 new licenses, bringing the total to 900 with 65,000 licensed products, a 39 percent increase of 2019.
This comes as the Kingdom’s participation in international technical committees increased six percent.
The authority also organized the International Standards Summit held on the sidelines of the Kingdom's presidency of the G20 in Riyadh with the participation of 2,800 experts and specialists from 83 countries around the world.
During the coronavirus pandemic, SASO launched six initiatives that helped the private sector overcome the economic repercussions, benefiting about 66,700 enterprises, with a total amount of SR19.9 million.
Meanwhile, all conformity certificates registered through the Saber e-platform were extended, while commodity test reports issued from accredited laboratories during the past three years were also accepted without the need for re-testing.
Saber is an electronic certification system that aims at registering conformity certificates of consumer products before they enter the Saudi market.
The organization also allowed remote auditing of the products that have the “Quality Mark”, while making a number of Saudi standard specifications available free of charge to interested parties.
It issued 44,300 labels for energy and water-efficient tools and purchased 4,500 samples of 7,600 units for testing.
SASO provided a conformity index that included samples from the markets of 27 cities and governorates in the Kingdom.
It also issued 1,0000 certificates of conformity, while the number of IECEE certificates reached 9,200, with 7,000 tests conducted for various products, including 2,600 that were found nonconforming.
The authority examined 14,000 imported used vehicles, 293 of which were nonconforming.
SASO implemented 20 projects on digital transformation with a total of 59 electronic services. It also increased its level of commitment to cybersecurity controls from 6 to 81 percent.
