On 8 May 2018, the National Light Industry Quality Standards Work Conference was held in Beijing. As reported in the conference, remarkable results have been achieved in the standardization, testing and certification of light industry products:

  • At present, there are 49 TCs, 86 SCs and more than 4,000 committee members in light industries. By the end of 2017, 5,728 standards have been developed and taken effect in light industry, among which 2423 are national standards, 3215 are sectoral standards, and 90 are military standards. There are also 87 testing bodies operating in the industry.
  • The “13th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of Technical Standard System for Light Industry” has been developed.
  • More than 300 mandatory national standards were developed, including “Safety of Household and Similar Electric Appliances”
  • China has undertaken 6 secretariats in international standardization organizations, and has led the development of 75 international standards and participated in the formulation of more than 300 international standards.

 

As the next step, nine priorities are put forward as follows:

  • Implement standard policies and improve institutional management system;
  • Enhance the planning of standard projects and develop standards in key areas. improve the adaptability of standards, formulate standards to protect consumer safety, and integrate civil and military standards;
  • Improve the quality of standards development;
  • Develop association standards and enterprise standards;
  • Facilitate the transformation of technical innovation to standards;
  • Promote the brand construction via standard trainings;
  • Strengthen cooperation with international standardization organization and try to increase the consistency of Chinese standards with international standards, from 86% at present to 95% by the end of 2018. In the fields of footwear, carpets, furniture, toys, surfactants, tools, hardware, etc., actively develop international standards and propose 10 more international standard proposals.
  • Expand the scope of standards from the traditional technical fields to other areas such as social governance, public services, environmental protection, and sustainable development, etc;
  • Train more standardization professionals.