Dr. Mihee Kang, GSTC Chief Assurance Officer, attended the IAF General Assembly in Bangkok, Thailand, which was part of the IAF/ILAC Annual Meetings held from October 15th to 24th, 2025.
GSTC became an official Association Member of the IAF in November 2024.
GSTC is part of the User Advisory Committee (UAC), which represents the interests of end-users of accredited conformity assessment, such as scheme owners and industries.
“Meeting with peers from around the world is always inspiring. It highlights how collaboration and trust drive our joint efforts towards developing more credible and transparent certification schemes and accreditation processes. During the closed meeting on the 18th, UAC members expressed their concerns and challenges, and they agreed to continue their collaboration as stakeholder members in a new organization commencing on January 1, 2026,” Said Dr. Kang.
The new single international accreditation organisation, ‘Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated’, was presented, which will combine the two organisations, IAF and ILAC. GSTC will continue to hold its scheme owner membership within the stakeholder member category.
The International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) is the international organisation for accreditation bodies operating in accordance with ISO/IEC 17011 and involved in the accreditation of conformity assessment bodies including calibration laboratories (using ISO/IEC 17025), testing laboratories (using ISO/IEC 17025), medical testing laboratories (using ISO 15189), inspection bodies (using ISO/IEC 17020), proficiency testing providers (using ISO/IEC 17043) and reference material producers (using ISO 17034).
The International Accreditation Forum (IAF) is a global association of accreditation bodies and other entities interested in conformity assessment across management systems, products, processes, services, personnel, validation, verification, and similar conformity assessment programs. IAF’s primary function is to develop a unified worldwide program of conformity assessment, aimed at reducing risk for businesses and their customers by ensuring that accredited certificates, validation, and verification statements are trustworthy and reliable.
