UAE: IHAF Welcomes Six New Countries

Dubai, November 10, 2019 (WAM) - The International Halal Accreditation Forum (IHAF), the world's premier Halal accreditation platform, welcomed new partners from six countries - Japan, Costa Rica, Bulgaria, Belarus, Sudan and the Republic of Korea - bringing its membership to 37 countries.

At IHAF's recent 6th Board of Directors meeting and 4th General Assembly held in Frankfurt, Germany, IHAF approved the membership of the Japan Accreditation Board (a public-interest foundation), the Costa Rican accreditation body, the Executive Agency - Bulgarian Accreditation Service, the Belarusian National Accreditation Center, the Sudanese Accreditation Council and the Korea Accreditation Board.

Attendees also discussed the IHAF expansion report, the IHAF strategy for 2020 to 2024, the achievement reports of internal committees, and the latest progress on peer-evaluation activities and development plans in the Halal field.

Dr. Rehab Faraj Al Ameri was approved as IHAF's new Secretary-General for 2019 to 2022. "IHAF is committed to working with accreditation bodies around the world to promote international Halal trade, and as the new Secretary-General my focus is on ensuring its continued growth. The strong interest from other countries shows that it has set a very high bar in adopting unified Halal accreditation standards and procedures," Dr. Al Ameri said.

During the General Assembly, IHAF also announced the new members of the Board of Directors and the committee chairs for 2019 to 2022.

The subsidiaries serving on the Board for 2019 to 2022 include the Emirates National Accreditation System, the Saudi Accreditation Center, the GCC Accreditation Center, the Pakistan National Accreditation Council, the Egyptian Accreditation Council, Italy's L'Ente Italiano di Accreditamento, the National Standardization Council of Thailand, the National Bureau of Agricultural Commodity and Food Standards, the Hungarian National Accreditation Authority and the Association of Laboratory Accreditation.

For the committee chairs, the General Assembly appointed Brahim Houla of GAC-GCC as the new chair of the Multilateral Recognition Arrangement Committee, Saud Alaskar of SAC-KSA as the new chair of the Technical Advisory Committee, and Mohamed Abdelmotagaly Aly of the Emirates International Accreditation Centre as the new chair of the Market and Media Committee.

IHAF also set its next General Assembly for the Board and committees, to be held on the Global Halal platform alongside Gulfood Week in Dubai on February 18, 2020.