Miloš Jelić MILOŠ JELIĆ Institut „Kirilo Savić“ – Beograd, Serbia milos.jelic@iks.rs
ISSUES OF INVOLVEMENT OF INTERESTED PARTIES IN STANDARDIZATION FOR COUNTRIES IN TRANSITION Pregledni rad/Review Summary The importance of standardization work has steadily increased to become more important than ever today. In transition economies and the developing world, unlike the countries of Western Europe, a different approach to standardization has been applied. Such economies have inherited central governmental control, and major industries were effectively owned by the state. Changes in the economic 'landscape' have triggered changes in national standardization processes in transition countries, introducing voluntary standards and invoking interesting parties to play a major role in the standardization process. Substantial participation of interested parties in standardization activities is not easy to attain, due to objective obstacles that arise: lack of suitable representatives, poor communication, limited financial resources, scant awareness, etc. Grounded on its own industrial and economic background, each country has to find its own structure and way of gaining full participation of interested parties in standardization, thus to meet international principles required for a national standardization system. The paper addresses the standardization structure of the Republic of Serbia established in that regard, and analyses the effects obtained so far. Keywords: standardization, interested parties, stakeholder participation, countries in transition 1. INTRODUCTION The manner in which formal standardization process is organized and the role assigned to various institutions differ significantly among regions and countries. Some countries establish the standardization process in a centralized way having one single body in charge to issue both voluntary and mandatory standards. On the other hand, there are countries with a large number of organizations yielding voluntary standards that may become mandatory if being referred to in technical regulations endorsed by public authorities. Generally, two approaches to standardization may be identified: traditional and new approach to standardization. Traditional approach focuses primarily on domestic issues taking little or no account to standards in foreign markets. Standard institutions are established within the public sector with negligible participation of private sector. Key objectives of standardization are tied with weights and measures as well as health and safety issues. The standardization structure in the traditional approach may be described as static one having little interference with market impulses, [1]. Simply, whatever is to be regulated concerning the product it tends to get the form of standard. The new approach to standardization tries to find the balance between domestic and external focuses. In comparison with traditional one it has an extended infrastructure thus to provide standardization structure to be flexible and dynamic. In the new approach standardization
14. HRVATSKA KONFERENCIJA O KVALITETI I 5. ZNANSTVENI SKUP HRVATSKOG DRUŠTVA ZA KVALITETU Baška, otok KRK, 15. – 17. svibnja 2014. g.
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