"Specifications and Standards" organizes a workshop on export procedures and requirements to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Under the patronage of His Excellency the Minister of National Economy, Mr. Khaled Al-Asili, the Standards and Metrology Institute held a workshop on export procedures and requirements to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in cooperation with the "Tasdeer" program funded by the British Consulate in Jerusalem. The workshop aimed to present and clarify the export procedures and requirements for the Saudi market to support and facilitate the trade exchange process with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, after the acceptance of conformity certificates issued by the institute as a certification body recognized by the Saudi Standards, Metrology and Quality Organization concerning non-food products.

The workshop was opened by Eng. Haidar Hajjeh, Director General of the Standards and Metrology Institute, on behalf of His Excellency the Minister of National Economy and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the institute, welcoming the attendees. He explained that the main goal of this workshop was to review the mechanism for Palestinian products to enter the Saudi markets after the acceptance of Palestinian conformity certificates for non-food products by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Hajjeh reviewed an overview of the Saudi market as one of the important markets for Palestinian products, as well as an overview of the Iraqi market. He also presented the list of Palestinian products that can be exported to the Saudi and Iraqi markets based on the results of a study conducted on the Saudi and Iraqi markets by the institute in cooperation with the Tasdeer project.

Hajjeh added that the process of inspecting and verifying our products upon their arrival in the Saudi market is a high-cost and very time-consuming process to obtain conformity certificates to enter the market. Therefore, and in cooperation with the Tasdeer program, these obstacles were overcome through signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which significantly reduced the cost and time of inspection for the Palestinian exporter.

He announced that an MoU had been signed with the Iraqi Standardization and Quality Control Authority, and that the executive program for the MoU will be signed with the Iraqi side at the beginning of next year, with ten products to be specified for export to the Iraqi market.

Hajjeh added that work will be done with the Saudi side to expand the scope to include acceptance of the institute’s certificates for other products.

For his part, Mr. Naseem Noor, Director of the Tasdeer Program, expressed his pride in partnering with the Standards Institute, the Ministry of Economy, and the Ministry of Finance (General Administration of Customs and Excise). He stated that the Tasdeer program focuses on facilitating trade and encouraging exports in general. The Tasdeer project works through partners in the public and private sectors to facilitate trade and overcome obstacles with the aim of achieving sustainable economic growth through supporting exports.

Noor added that they work directly with exporting companies or those wishing to export, providing support that may reach up to 80% of the cost of export development. He also said that a market entry plan for Saudi Arabia can be developed with support from their experts, through quality certificates, marketing services, opening a company branch, or providing some modern machinery. They also support suppliers due to the importance of the supply chain as a fundamental aspect of product quality for export.

During the workshop, Eng. Adeeb Al-Qaimari, Head of the Engineering Department in the Technical Instructions Committee at the Standards and Metrology Institute, reviewed the Saudi technical regulations for three sectors: the technical regulation for leather products, the technical regulation for paper and cardboard, and the technical regulation for construction materials.

Eng. Shorouq Marqatn, Director of the Quality and Qualification Department at the institute, reviewed the conformity assessment procedures for the regulations recognized by the Saudi Standards Organization, which include the technical regulations for leather products, paper and cardboard, and construction materials.

Meanwhile, Eng. Reem Al-Barghouthi, Director of the Cooperation and International Relations Department at the institute, presented a demonstration on the registration mechanism on the Saudi "Saber" electronic platform. The presentation included how to register establishments and companies, product registration, and conformity certificate registration on the platform.