REPORT ON THE 16TH APMP GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The 16th APMP General Assembly (GA) and related meetings were held from November 6 to 10, 2000, at Bangkok and Cha-am (a beautiful seaside resort), Thailand. Meetings and workshops for seven out of nine Technical Committees (TCs) were held, and a new committee for developing economies (DEC) was established during the workshop for NMIs of developing economies.

Meetings for the two other TCs (Time & Frequency, and Mass and related Quantities) were held in Japan immediately before the GA, both in parallel with workshops (ATF/Asia-Pacific Time and Frequency 2000, APMF/Asia Pacific Mass & Force) that were held in Japan around this same time frame.

A symposium on "Global Assurance of Measurement Traceability Through Global MRA" held on November 8 was attended by more than 300 persons, the most in the history of APMP meetings. The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Commerce, and Designated Director-General of The World Trade Organization (WTO). Also, Dr. Kozo Iizuka, Vice Chairman of CIPM, gave a valuable lecture about the Global MRA based on the world history of metrological activities. Other distinguished speakers invited from APMP and EUROMET also spoke on the current status and activities in their regions.

General Assembly

As many as 80 people from 14 economies (24 institutions) out of 19 full member economies and two associate members participated in the 16th APMP GA. The members welcomed many guests, including those from CIPM (Dr. R. Kaals, Dr. K. Iizuka), COOMET (4), EUROMET (3), MENAMET (1), SADCMET (1) and SIM (1). It was the first time that the representatives from all five other RMOs were present at the APMP GA. Numbers of APMP members and participants in the GA have been increasing significantly, which means the NMIs of all measurement fields in principal economies have become APMP members.

Discussion of Global MRA

Presently, two activities are attempting to build up the substance of MRA. One is international comparisons, and its partial results have already appeared in Appendix B of BIPM's website. The other activity is to publish the list of the Calibration and Measurement Capabilities (CMCs) that will be submitted from the NMI of each economy. The CMCs need to be reviewed by the RMOs including APMP before uploading to BIPM's database as Appendix C. We can see some of the CMCs on BIPM's website (http://www.bipm.org/kedb/). There was much debate about CMC review processes and methods at the GA and EC/TC Chair meetings.
The point at issue is whether:

Delegates got together in Thailand

A) Detailed review criteria similar to the accreditation are to be established
and the review conducted in accordancewith such criteria or, B) some flexibility should be given based on mutual trust between NMIs.

There is a difference of views on the technical side in the same region, and the issue is not so simple. In general, however, JCRB side and European regions support B), while the technical side and APMP support A). The technical side believes that the first priority should be given to setting the review rules and evaluation criteria, and that each RMO should be responsible for conducting the review under the identified and detailed rules. The Length group has endorsed the idea of this course of action. However, the JCRB takes exception to the point that the technically lower level of calibration service will receive a lower priority under these rules. They believe that the review should be conducted promptly based on mutual reliability between NMIs, and processes such as using a testing laboratory are not recommended.

The technical side has asked the secretariat to unify the various opinions of APMP members and issue the APMP recommendation in the near future.

Timing of CMC submissions was reconfirmed. Length and Electricity & Magnetism should be listed on the JCRB database in January 2001, and Acoustics, Ultrasound & Vibration and Standard Gas in June. The review schedule for Thermometry has not been decided yet, and Thermometry was requested to submit the CMC in time for the third round in May 2001.

Visiting Peer Review

The feasibility of mutual visiting peer reviews for evaluating calibration capability was discussed. Japan conducted a peer review in Vietnam and Thailand in October last year, and it was highly valued by the representatives from both economies. Also, it was decided that the APMP would organize a review team in collaboration with APLAC and submit a request to the APEC for the budget in order to systematically promote the visiting peer review.

Executive Committee

The extension of Dr. Imai's (Japan) term of Chairman (one more term (two years)) was approved unanimously at the GA. Also, the continuation (one more year) of Dr. Inglis as Chair of the MAR Advisory Committee and of Prof. Shi (presently Executive member) was approved. In addition, Mr. S. Prayoon, Chair of DEC, joined the EC as a new member (two-year term).

Changes of three of nine TC Chairs [Length (Korea), Ionizing Radiation (Korea) and Amount of Substances (Australia)] were proposed and approved. New TC Chairs are introduced on the next page.

Membership Fee and Application for New Members

The membership fee has been discussed over two years, and the final proposal from the secretariat including annual budget was approved. The DPR of Korea is applying for full membership, and the Russian Federation hopes to be an APMP associate member. It was approved to vote on these two applications.

Next GA and Other Meetings

The next APMP General Assembly will be held in November 2001 at Tsukuba, Japan. A TCM workshop is also planned before GA. In addition, the international comparison for the Iodine Stabilized He-Ne Laser was suggested. In 2002, the APMP General Assembly will be held in Vietnam.