ISO-14000 launch planned

JAKARTA (JP): The president of the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO), Eberhard Mollmann, said yesterday that the organization will introduce ISO-14000 certificates of standardization next year.

"We are still preparing ISO-14000, which concerns environmental management," Mollmann said after meeting with executives of the Standardization Council of Indonesia.

"I think the environment is an important field in the world, especially now when people are more conscious and responsible towards environmental problems," he said.

Executive secretary of the council, Herudi Kartowisastro, told The Jakarta Post that Indonesia, which has adopted ISO-9000, must adopt the ISO-14000 standardization if it wants to win competition on the world market.

"We have to adopt ISO-14000 to show other countries that Indonesia complies with the certification, issued by an independent party, which can be accepted by all people," Herudi said.

P. Djoko Tjiptadi, a director of PT Sucofindo, a state-owned surveyor company, said recently that the number of ISO-9000 certificate recipients is only about 70, far lower than the 400 in Malaysia and over 500 in Singapore.

During his three-day Indonesian visit, which began yesterday, Mollmann is scheduled to attend a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Consultative Committee on Standard and Quality.(ste)