Accreditation plays a critical role in ensuring the reliability of products, services, and systems, enhancing market readiness for emerging technologies, facilitating trade, attracting investment, and strengthening quality infrastructure systems.
This statement coincides with the celebration of World Accreditation Day 2026, observed annually on 9th June under the theme “Innovation, Trust and Sustainability: The Power of Accreditation.”
The theme highlights the growing role of accreditation in supporting economic development and enhancing the reliability of products, services, and systems across key sectors, thereby contributing to economic diversification objectives and strengthening the competitiveness of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies regionally and globally.
The Gulf Accreditation Centre currently serves as Chair of the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated (Global ACI), holds four leadership positions within international and regional technical committees, ranks sixth globally according to the Asia Pacific Accreditation Cooperation (APAC), has achieved international recognition in six key accreditation fields, and has signed more than 55 bilateral agreements since its establishment.
On this occasion, Khalid Abdullah Al Saadi, Director-General of the Gulf Accreditation Centre, stated, “Accreditation is no longer merely a technical process for verifying competence. It has become a strategic pillar for building trust in markets, supporting innovation, advancing sustainability, developing technical talent, and enabling both the digital and knowledge economies.”
He added that accreditation plays a central role within the quality infrastructure ecosystem by ensuring the competence of conformity assessment bodies, including testing and calibration laboratories, medical laboratories, inspection bodies, and certification bodies for products, systems, and services, in accordance with international best practices.
Al Saadi further noted that accreditation enhances confidence in testing, inspection, and certification results, supports product and service safety, protects consumers, facilitates trade and investment flows, and strengthens the credibility and efficiency of markets. As technological, economic, and sustainability-related transformations continue to accelerate worldwide, accreditation is becoming increasingly important as a guarantor of trust, credibility, and competence. It also supports government efforts to improve service quality, enhance national competitiveness, and create broader opportunities for trade and investment.
He emphasised that in the age of artificial intelligence and emerging technologies, trust in results, data, and systems has become essential to the success of digital transformation and the knowledge economy. Accreditation, therefore, emerges as a key enabler of the digital economy by providing a trusted environment that supports innovation while ensuring the safety, reliability, and efficiency of new technologies and services.
Al Saadi also highlighted the direct impact of accreditation on individuals and communities through enhancing food safety, improving the accuracy of medical testing, ensuring the reliability of products and services, and increasing safety standards for equipment and devices used in everyday life.
He further stressed that the Gulf Accreditation Centre continues to work closely with local, regional, and international partners to promote a culture of quality and accreditation, expand international recognition of GCC conformity assessment outcomes, and support the development visions and aspirations of GCC member states.
These efforts contribute to building more resilient, sustainable, and globally competitive economies through strengthened governance practices, credible environmental claims, enhanced transparency, and the mitigation of risks associated with inaccurate information.
Al Saadi reaffirmed the Centre’s commitment to empowering conformity assessment bodies and enhancing the reliability of their services, in line with its mission of building trust, promoting quality, and supporting Gulf integration. These efforts contribute to a more prosperous and sustainable future for future generations while strengthening the attractiveness of this vital sector for investment.
The Gulf Accreditation Centre continues to support Gulf integration efforts amid the rapid adoption of advanced technologies and artificial intelligence. Accreditation serves as a trusted framework for verifying the competence of emerging systems and technologies, enabling governments and the private sector to embrace innovation with confidence while enhancing market readiness to respond to future developments with credibility and efficiency.
The Centre also plays an increasingly important role in supporting sustainability by verifying the credibility of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) claims, enhancing transparency and reliability, and reducing risks associated with inaccurate information. These efforts support GCC ambitions to build more sustainable and responsible economies.
GAC represents a successful model of Gulf cooperation in the field of quality infrastructure. Through more than 55 bilateral agreements, it has strengthened its position within the global accreditation system and enhanced international recognition of its services, contributing to the growing presence of GCC countries on the global quality and accreditation landscape.
The Centre continues to strengthen technical confidence among GCC member states by providing accreditation services across six key sectors in accordance with international best practices and by expanding international recognition of the accreditation certificates it issues. These efforts help remove technical barriers to trade, facilitate access of Gulf products and services to global markets, enhance the competitiveness of Gulf economies, and support economic integration across the GCC.
GAC also continues to strengthen its role within the global accreditation community through its chairmanship of Global ACI, leadership positions in international and regional technical committees, and participation in international recognition arrangements, enabling worldwide acceptance of the results produced by bodies accredited by the Centre and reinforcing their credibility on the international stage.
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