World's largest forum on standards kicks off in Seoul

Jeh Dae-shik, administrator of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), said Korea's role in the ISO is getting bigger and bigger and the Seoul meeting will give the nation renewed momentum to reach higher. / Courtesy of KATS

Seoul meeting reflects Korea’s status elevated in the ISO

By Park Si-soo

The world’s largest meeting on international standards will kick off in Seoul, Wednesday, for a two-day run.

More than 700 delegates from 162 countries will take part in the 38th General Assembly of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) at the Lotte Hotel in downtown Seoul.

Under the theme “ISO 2020: Great Things Happen When the World Agrees,” participants will share the latest information and ideas about international standards and also discuss ways to promote their importance.

The ISO is the world’s largest developer of voluntary international standards. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the organization has published more than 19,500 international standards, carrying far-reaching influence on almost all industries, from technology, to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare.

Korea joined the ISO in 1963 and this is the first time for the organization’s general assembly to be held here. During the event, foreign delegates will inspect major companies here that lead global trends in terms of technological standards ― Samsung Electronics, Korea Ginseng Corporation, LSIS and AmorePacific.

Jeh Dae-shik, administrator of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), said hosting the general assembly in Seoul reflects Korea’s status being elevated in the ISO. This still demands, however, that Korean companies set their standards to the highest levels possible, he said.

KATS is the host of the Seoul meeting and Jeh will attend as a delegate representing Korea.

“Korea’s role in the ISO is getting bigger and bigger but still there is a long way to go. I feel strongly that the Seoul meeting will give us renewed momentum to reach higher,” Jeh said in an email interview with The Korea Times. “We will continue to expand our contribution to the ISO and strive to help make the organization even better than it is.”

He said Korea is working to become a member of ISO’s standing committee that decides key policies on international standards. The committee is comprised of six nations ― the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Japan and China.

“Given the amount of donations, participation of companies and other elements that determine a nation’s standing, I think Korea is recognized as ninth among the member nations. To become a candidate for a standing committee, we should be ranked at least seventh. To that end, I will do my best,” he said.

The administrator said that meeting standards aids in the creation of products and services that are safe, reliable and of good quality. He explained that standards help companies increase productivity while minimizing errors and waste.

Another advantage is that a system of standards enables products from different markets to be directly compared so that they are a great help to companies entering new markets. Standards also promote the development of global trade on a fair basis.

He said that standards also serve to safeguard consumers and end-users of products and services, ensuring that certified products conform to minimum standards set internationally.

Despite these advantages, the administrator said, many Korean companies still pay little attention to ISO and international standards. And such lukewarm attention costs them opportunities for business expansion and sustainable growth, he said.

“There are many companies in Korea that have developed some of the world’s leading technologies. But many of them don’t try to promote their technologies as global standards,” Jeh said. “An estimated 70 percent of the companies in advanced nations attend meetings on international standards, while only one in five Korean companies do.”

According to data from the KATS, a total of 1,417 Koreans attended international standards-related meetings last year. Of them, only 21 percent or 303 came from private companies. Of 103 Korean ISO executives, only 11 are businessmen.

He warned that Korean companies ignorant of international standards will soon lose their competitive edge in overseas markets, citing the latest trade trends in which international standards increasingly serve as non-tariff barriers.

“Free trade agreements have torn down conventional tariff barriers of many countries and leveled the playing field regardless of the nation where a product is made. At the same time, exceeding standards galvanizes companies in gaining greater attention to their products, and if done successfully, will inevitably sharpen their competitive edge in the tariff-free trade era,” he said.

In order to keep Korean companies competitive in the new trade environment, he pointed out that the Korean government should introduce measures mandating companies to pay more attention to international standards and support their standardization activities.

“For example, there are many materials used in lithium ion batteries for cell phones and laptops. Batteries produced in Korea are based on cobalt-manganese or manganese oxide. But the Chinese government recently designated batteries based on ferric phosphate as an industrial standard, hampering exports of Korean lithium ion batteries made in Korea to China,” he said. “If Korea can influence the standard for batteries, it would help companies significantly conduct business internationally,”

Who is Jeh Dae-shik?

Jeh Dae-shik is one of the most influential technocrats in Korea who worked at the Korean Intellectual Property Office for more than two decades. He was named administrator of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards in July.

Born in 1960 in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, he graduated from Pusan National University with a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering and earned a master’s degree in information technology from the University at Albany (SUNY), in the United States.

Jeh was appointed to various decision-making positions at the intellectual property office, including head of the Intellectual Property Trial and Appeal Board.