SASO and Housing Sign Cooperation Memorandum to Localize Modern Construction Technologies
His Excellency the Minister of Housing, Mr. Majed bin Abdullah Al-Hugail, and His Excellency the Governor of SASO, Dr. Sa'ad bin Othman Al-Kasabi signed, today, a technical cooperation memorandum, on the sidelines of the Fourth Arab Housing Conference. The memorandum aims to enable and facilitate the transfer and localization of modern technologies for residential construction and materials, in addition to qualifying required technical competencies to ensure increasing capacities in areas of common interest.
According to the Minister of Housing, the memorandum comes in order to follow up decisions and recommendations of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs to activate areas of cooperation and partnership among government agencies, increase cooperation between the Ministry of Housing and SASO in standardization and specification standards of materials, stimulate housing development projects at the Ministry of Housing, and achieve the Ministry's vision designed to stimulate supply and improve quality across systems and technologies of modern construction and areas of joint work. He pointed out that the memorandum of joint technical cooperation in scientific research, the transfer and localization of science-related systems and technologies of construction, and the adoption of joint research projects between the Ministry and SASO, contributes to stimulating housing development projects and promoting sustainable development.
His Excellency the Governor of SASO, Dr. Sa'ad Al-Kasabi, emphasized the importance of concerted efforts, through these joint programs, to achieve the Kingdom's Vision and improve various services provided to citizens, stressing the importance of standards in the field of building materials and technologies as the most important tools in raising quality rates in residential products in general.
The cooperation memorandum includes working on the localization of standardization, in addition to quality and calibration systems in activities between the Ministry and SASO. Also, it includes exchanging knowledge, studies and scientific research related to the joint relationship. Moreover, it covers joint technical cooperation in developing, reviewing and updating standard specifications and technical regulations, to consolidate confidence in Saudi standard specifications and technical regulations, issued by SASO, for all related services.
The memorandum of cooperation also emphasized the importance of studying the Ministry of Housing suggestions on specifications or technical regulations for products and related services. The Ministry, under the memorandum, holds leadership of technical committees responsible for the development of Saudi standards related to its tasks. The cooperation memorandum also includes activating joint work between the two sides to identify and examine mechanisms of materials and components of targeted modern construction systems and different building materials, in addition to studying their efficiency, quality and appropriateness to be applied in the Kingdom's housing projects. Furthermore, it covers the two parties benefit from their specialists and experts in the implementation of initiatives and projects of common interest in agreed ways in a timely manner.
The memorandum provides an opportunity for staff and technical competencies, in the ministry, to take part in scientific seminars, training courses and various public activities, held by SASO, related to standardization fields. In addition, it gives an opportunity to exchange information and publications between the two parties, cooperate in the implementation of raising awareness in related areas, and frame the benefit from equipment and technical capabilities available to serve the aspects of cooperation in calibration and laboratories' accreditation and qualification, in order to achieve common goals and cooperate in the application of the Saudi Building Code in related fields.
The Ministry of Housing and SASO are working on developing programs to implement activities of standardization, quality, conformity, energy and water programs, as well as related technical regulations. This comes to improve procedures and raise the quality of services and goods, with cooperation and coordination in the field of risk monitoring and collecting, analyzing and disseminating information of common interest, so as to contribute in building the general index of quality, and providing professional consultancy in quality management systems.