The Austrian Standards Institute and the Kazakh standardisation institute KAZINST signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Vienna in February 2010 to intensify co-operation in standardisation and to foster the exchange of information.

The overall objective is to facilitate access to their markets for companies. The MoU was signed during a study visit of a Kazakh delegation to Austrian Standards within the framework of the project “Support to Regional Economic Cooperation in Central Asia” that is organised by Germany’s Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit.

In addition to representatives of KAZINST, delegates of the Kazakh accreditation agency and the Economic Ministry took part in the visit.

Its programme also included the presentation of the Austrian accreditation system and a visit to the testing laboratory for genetically modified food of the Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES).