World S Most Important Annual Meeting for Safety and Global Trade in Electrical and Electronic

World’s most important annual meeting for safety and global trade in electrical and electronic goods taking place this year in Vladivostok, Russian Federation

Geneva, Switzerland, 03 October 2017 – Electricity is the life-blood of economies both in developed and developing countries where it increasingly impacts transportation, manufacturing, healthcare and all aspects of everyday life. It’s absence and any interruption in supply is vividly felt. Thousands of experts around the world help make electrical devices and systems safe and reliable. They prepare for example the technical basis for the broader adoption of renewable energy, enable off-grid universal energy access; prepare the guidelines, metrics and protocols that allow electric vehicles to be charged; increase the energy efficiency of electric motors or protect our phones from dust and water. Representatives of these expert groups meet once a year, in a different member country to discuss future technical needs in safety, security and other areas.

From 2 to 13 October, 2017, around 1500 international experts will be participating in the 81st IEC General Meeting, which will take place in Vladivostok, Russian Federation, hosted by the IEC National Committee of the Russian Federation and Rosstandard (federal Agency on Technical Regulation and Metrology).

In value, electrical and electronic goods represent around 20% of all goods traded globally. In comparison raw energy represents 9.7% and fashion around 2.7%. To allow companies to trade their goods globally and for countries to be able to participate in global value chains, they all need to work with globally harmonized technical rules that are expressed in International Standards, most often IEC International Standards. These Standards also form the basis for testing and certification, which is essential to verify if product promises are kept and devices are safe to use.

The IEC family of 170 countries represents over 99% of the world population world energy generation. On the IEC global and neutral platform, where each member country has one vote, often highly competitive companies are able to agree what they need to move technologies safely forward. That’s where the technical side of global challenges such as energy efficiency, universal energy access, clean transportation, smart cities and communities or cyber security are discussed.

IEC General Secretary and CEO, Frans Vreeswijk says, “The IEC has been connecting communities since its foundation in 1906. Stakeholders from every industrialized and most developing countries are able to actively participate in the IEC. With IEC work they are able to compete on the global market or build infrastructure that lasts. The internet of things and broad digitalization represent new challenges which have to be addressed in a systems approach. The IEC platform allows many experts from different organizations to cooperate to define the technical foundations for efficiency, safety and security that are needed now and in the future”.

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Invitation for the media

You are cordially invited to the official opening ceremony in Vladivostok on Monday 9 October at around 6 pm, which will be attended by leading representatives from politics, science and industry. Please contact Maria Pishchulina if you require additional information.

Further Information

Gabriela Ehrlich

Tel: +41 22 919 02 78

Mob: +41 79 600 56 72

Email:

Skype: gabriela.ehrlich

About the IEC

The IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) is the world’s leading organization that prepares and publishes globally relevant International Standards for all electric and electronic devices and systems. It brings together 170 countries, representing more than 99% of the world population and world electricity generation. More than 20 000 experts cooperate on the global IEC platform and many more in each member country. They ensure that products work everywhere safely and efficiently with each other. The IEC also supports all forms of conformity assessment and administers four Conformity Assessment Systems that certify that components, equipment and systems used in homes, offices, healthcare facilities, public spaces, transportation, manufacturing, explosive environments and during energy generation conform to them.

IEC work covers a vast range of technologies: power generation (including all renewable energy sources), transmission, distribution, Smart Grid & Smart Cities, batteries, home appliances, office and medical equipment, all public and private transportation, semiconductors, fibre optics, nanotechnology, multimedia, information technology, and more. It also addresses safety, EMC, performance and the environment.

http://www.iec.ch

About Rosstandard

The Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology (Rosstandard) is a national standardization, metrology and state supervision body which is part of the federal executive body under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation.

It controls and supervises compliance of mandatory requirements of state standards and technical regulations. There are 120 employees in the central office, 86 regional centres and 10 standardization and metrology institutes under the supervision of Rosstandart. There are 353 national technical committees and about 16’000 people working in the Russian national standardization system. Rosstandart hosts the IEC National Committee of the Russian Federation.

More information at gost.ru

IEC – International Electrotechnical Commission I 3 rue de Varembé I PO Box 131 I CH-1211 Geneva 20 I Switzerland

T +41 22 919 0211 I Fax +41 22 919 0203 I I www.iec.ch