JANAAC Commended By Industry Minister

Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Hon. Audley Shaw, has commended the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC) for recently signing two international agreements.

He was speaking at a virtual ‘World Accreditation Day’ forum hosted by JANAAC on June 9 at the Ministry in Kingston.

“I must commend JANAAC for signing the Inter-American Accreditation Cooperation (IAAC) Multilateral Recognition Arrangement (MLA) and the International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) for accreditation of inspection bodies to the ISO/IEC 17020 standard,” Mr. Shaw said.

The Minister also commended the JANAAC Chairman, Simon Roberts; Chief Executive Officer, Sharonmae Shirley; and her team for their demonstrated commitment towards keeping issues of accreditation on the national agenda.

“As we consider safe and robust ways to move the economy forward, the advancement of the national accreditation programme must be treated with alacrity; therefore, I urge all private and public inspection bodies and laboratories to improve their service delivery and marketability through JANAAC’s accreditation services,” he encouraged.

He noted that JANAAC is also the only internationally recognised accreditation body in the English-speaking Caribbean that is a signatory to the ILAC MRA and the IAAC MLA for ISO/IEC 17025 (testing laboratories) and ISO 15189 (medical testing).

JANAAC’s latest achievement opens the gateway for international recognition and increases the value added to accredited business operations, while providing opportunities to leverage competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Source: JIS