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ANNUAL REPORT 1999

Building on Standards

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ISO is the International Organiz-

ation for Standardization.

It is made up of national stand-

ards institutes from countries

large and small, industrialized

and developing, in all regions

of the world. ISO develops

voluntary technical standards

which add value to all types

of business operations. They

contribute to making the

development, manufacturing and

supply of products and services

more efficient, safer and cleaner.

They make trade between

countries easier and fairer. ISO

standards also serve to safeguard

consumers, and users in general,

of products and services – as well

as to make their lives simpler.

ISO develops only those

standards that are required by

the market. This work is carried

out by experts on loan from

the industrial, technical and

business sectors which have asked

for the standards, and which

subsequently put them to use.

These experts may be joined by

others with relevant knowledge,

such as representatives of

government agencies, consumer

organizations, academia and

testing laboratories.

Published under the designation

of International Standards,

ISO standards represent an

international consensus on the

state of the art in the technology

concerned.

ISO and InternationalStandardization

Contents

ISO’s standards servesociety as a whole

Creative standardssolutions

ISO’s structure

Principal officers

Membership

Financial statement

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Although ISO’s principal act-ivity is the development of tech-nical standards, these standardsalso have important economicand social effects. 1999 providedmany examples, of which thisreport highlights a selection. Itshows that as ISO prepares toenter the 21st century, the organ-ization’s work has a positiveinfluence on society as a whole.

ISO bridges public andprivate sectors

As a “UN-type” organizationthat is, in fact, nongovernmental,ISO occupies a bridging positionbetween the public and privatesectors. In order to use thisprivileged position to encouragegreater partnership betweenthese sectors, ISO launched theStandards Actions in the GlobalMarket Forum (SGM Forum).Its founder members includestandardization partners theInternational ElectrotechnicalCommission (IEC) andITU (International Tele-communication Union),and a number of otherinternational organiza-tions, including UN bod-ies, and others represent-ing international businessand standards users.The Forum will act as around table for discussionof programmes, projectsand studies with stand-ardization componentsin the different organ-izations. It is intended toavoid wasteful duplica-

tion of efforts and identify oppor-tunities for working in synergy,with particular emphasis on thedeveloping countries.

Strategic initiatives

Increasing ISO’smarket relevance

Increasing ISO’s marketrelevance is its most importantobjective. It involves a betterunderstanding of market needs,and increased involvement ofindustry, consumers and otherstakeholders. Above all, it means,“Doing the right things”. 1999saw a number of achievementsalong this strategic axis.

Sector groups createnew synergy

“Sector differentiation” is a newinitiative aimed at ensuring a closerrelationship between standard-ization work items and businesspriorities. Business sector groupsare being set up as a framework forimproved interaction betweensenior management from allstakeholders in that industry, andthe technical experts who developthe standards for the sector. The oiland gas industry has been selectedas pilot sector and that groupbegan operating in 1999.

Business plansdirect energies

ISO launched a related pro-gramme also designed to ensure aseamless fit between the standardsit develops and the standardsneeded by the market. By end-2000, each of ISO’s technical com-mittees will be expected to have

completed a business planwhich also covers the ac-tivities of its subcommit-tees. The business planswill analyse conditionsand trends in the marketsector served by the tech-nical committee and willbe required explicitly tolink work programmesand sector needs. Thisexercise is expected togenerate clear prioritiesfor which standards areneeded, by when, andwhat resources are neededto do the job.

ISO’s standardsserve society as

a whole

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A meeting of minds

ISO President, Prof. GiacomoElias, proposed a brainstormingmeeting in 2000, bringing togetherall ISO technical and subcom-mittee Chairs. The idea originatedfrom a general sentiment withinthe ISO leadership that the organ-ization needs significantly to changeits way of operating. “We havereached a sufficient level of con-sensus within our governance andmanagement structures and we areready now to more proactivelyengage the support of possibly themost influential group of peoplein international standardization,namely, the Chairs of our technicalcommittees and subcommittees,”Prof. Elias commented. “They areour ambassadors vis-à-vis industry,the scientific community, govern-mental bodies, and consumer or-ganizations. They see the issuesclose-up, from both the industrialand market standpoints.”

OptimizationAnother of ISO’s strategic ob-

jectives which progressed in 1999was optimization. Basically, thismeans, “Doing things well”, andinvolves the reengineering of theISO standards’ development proc-ess on a foundation of informationand communication technologies(ICT) in order to achieve dramaticimprovements in productivity,quality and transparency. ISO willevolve into a Virtual Organizationwhose core processes will use ICTplatforms. An example launchedin 1999 was the introduction of aserver to allow committees to voteelectronically.

For many people, standard-ization evokes “dry” matters likemeasurement, testing, quantifi-cation… and yet, ISO standardshave an undeniable effect on thequality of life for the people whoproduce, trade and use goods andservices throughout the world.

Quality of life in the21st century

ISO held an open session withthe above title, in conjunctionwith its 1999 General Assembly inBeijing, at which an internationalpanel of speakers focussed onhow standards might help im-prove the future quality of life infour areas: the home, health andsafety, energy and the environ-ment. The ISO Bulletin report ofthe event concluded: “It is a natu-ral need and unconditional right

From left to right: ISO ImmediatePast President Mr. Liew Mun Leong,ISO President Prof. Giacomo Elias,

China’s Premier Mr. Zhu Rongji,and Mr. Li Chuanqing, Director

General of the China State Bureauof Quality and Technical Supervision

(CSBTS).

Quality of life

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A highlight of 1999 was the

first General Assembly to take

place in China, whose Premier

honoured ISO by a personal

welcome to the organization’s

leading officers.

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of all of mankind to seek to im-prove the quality of their lives.In laboratories and universities,just as in factories and enterprisesall over the world, the tools arebeing developed to improve ourwell-being. But speed of devel-opment of these means, theirinteroperability and rationalfunctioning, will imperiouslydemand standards – InternationalStandards.”

Quality of life for the elderly

In the year declared by theUnited Nations as the Inter-national Year of Older Persons,ISO held a workshop in Wash-ington DC with the objectiveof generating recommendationson opportunities for improvingthe quality of life for the agedthrough the development ofguidelines, standards and cons-umer education programmes.The programme covered specificissues such as health care (nutri-tion and pharmaceuticals) andsafety (both of products and inthe home), as well as more gen-eral aspects of the quality of lifefor the aged. Perspectives wereoffered from international andnational viewpoints, and fromdeveloped and developing coun-tries.

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9 Between 1947 and the end of1999, ISO published more than12 500 International Standards.ISO’s work programme rangesfrom standards for traditionalactivities, such as agriculture andconstruction, through mechanicalengineering to the newest infor-mation technology developments,such as the digital coding of audio-visual signals for multimedia ap-plications. The following sectionhighlights a selection of its creativesolutions to technical problems indifferent business sectors, and illus-trates that ISO standards also pro-vide important economic and socialbenefits.

tional Standards Bulletin, which isbeing put out by the OGP (theInternational Association of Oil& Gas Producers, that groups 57members including 47 oil compa-nies, and 10 national and interna-tional oil industry associations. Thispublication presents the OGPposition on International Stand-ards and is aimed at disseminatingthe results of its findings and thebenefits of standards for the sec-tor. It gives the results of a Shellstudy that shows a “step change”over the last eight years in refer-ences to ISO standards in the com-pany’s documents. Shell has alsodeveloped a projection of the po-tential benefits to the industry ofimplementing ISO standards. Thecompany calculates that if the sys-tematic use of ISO standards couldbe expected to save 1% of the in-dustry’s annual expenditure, thenthe saving would amount to USD180 million and represent a returnon investment of 25 to 1.

Transporting gas safely

ISO developed a new family ofstandards (ISO 9809 and ISO 7866)dealing with the design, construc-tion and testing of, respectively,steel and aluminium cylinders forthe safe storage and transport ofhigh-pressure gas. A conservativeestimate puts the number of suchcylinders in use around the world

at over 130 million. While these aremainly used in industry, there areother significant, diverse applica-tions in fields such as medicine, fire-fighting, emergency operations,sports and drink-dispensing, all ofwhich bring gas cylinders close tothe public. In most countries, there

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Creative standardssolutions

are national regulations on gascylinders, but consolidation withinthe compressed gases industrymakes the advent of InternationalStandards opportune. In additionto the technical advantages ofhaving common standards world-wide, the ISO documents will beinfluential in the removal of tradeobstacles by providing regulatorybodies with the assurance that gascylinders manufactured to ISOstandards are safe and reliable.

Steam turbines

For the past two decades, twomajor trends have strongly influ-enced the world market for in-dustrial-type steam engines: firstly,the rising costs of energy, and,

Power industry

Oil and gas

The oil and gas industry is ISO’sfirst pilot sector group in its sectordifferentiation initiative. Thegroup has already launched a newinformation sheet, the Interna-

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secondly, the growing concern forthe environment. The co-genera-tion of heat and electrical, or me-chanical, energy can provide theseenergies economically with re-duced environmental impact. Thishas caused a steady growth of themarket. Until recently, the only in-dustrial-type steam turbines cov-ered by ISO standards were for thepetroleum and natural gas indus-tries. This led to the complicatedand uneconomical situation whereindividual companies, or their con-sultants, developed their ownspecifications and requirements.The solution proposed by ISO is anew standard, ISO 14661, intendedto become the base standard forindustrial-type steam engines,completed by modular standardsthat are specific to particularbranches of industry, such as thepetroleum and natural gas sectors.

Cryogenic vessels

An example of how ISO stand-ards can support governmentalmoves to improve safety and facili-tate international trade was givenby the establishment of a newcommittee, ISO/TC 220, on cryo-genic vessels – insulated vesselsused for the storage and transportof liquefied gases at very lowtemperatures. By developing aninternational consensus on thedesign, safety aspects, gas/mate-rials compatibility, insulationperformance and operationalrequirements, the new committeewill contribute to homogenoustechnical rules and improve inter-national trade. A second aim is

that the International Standardsproduced will act as the technicalbasis for United Nations’ regula-tions on the transport of danger-ous goods.

ICT industry

Multimedia standards

ISO published MPEG 4, the lat-est in its suite of standards for mul-timedia applications. The first twostandards, MPEG 1 and MPEG 2were highly specific, respectively, toCD-ROM’s and digital television.MPEG 4 introduces several newdevelopments. For example, it ena-bles users to have universal accessto multimedia information. Theuser is not dependent on any onedistribution system – network,

Digital TV

Digital television services arebeing implemented in many coun-tries and will replace most, if not all,existing analogue systems through-out the world within the next dec-ade. The joint standard ISO/IEC16500:1999 provides for worldwideinteroperability of end-to-end dig-ital TV systems. It allows producersof multimedia content to reach thewidest possible audience, as well asprotecting users from obsolescenceand giving them seamless access to

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radio relay, microwave beam,satellite system, wireless, etc. –because the information is trans-mitted in exactly the same stand-ard format through all thesechannels. The standard will have animpact on the general public inmany different ways, such as allow-ing everyone to cut and edit audio-visual material – a possibility up tonow only accessible to profession-als using complex studio tech-niques.

information and communication.It enables carriers to offer effectivetransport and manufacturers toprovide hardware and software forunrestricted production flow anduse of information.

Unicode

ISO’s flexibility and ability towork productively with standards-setting consortia outside the tradi-tional standardization framework

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9 was illustrated by its collaborationwith the Unicode Consortium onthe Unicode Standard Version 3.0,the software specification thatassures a single, universal way torepresent text worldwide. TheUnicode Standard assigns everycharacter a unique number, en-suring the same representationfor text regardless of country,language, or operating system. Asa result, computer programmeswritten to its specifications can beused around the world withoutmodification. Experts from ISO/IEC worked very closely togetherwith experts from the UnicodeConsortium to ensure completesynchronization of Unicode 3.0and the related ISO/IEC 10646-1:2000 standard to ensureinteroperability and data stability.The Unicode Consortium com-prises global industry leaders suchas Microsoft, Sun Microsystems,Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

Environment matters

Green claims

As economies develop, con-sumer concerns with the everydaythings they buy may become moresophisticated. For example, theymay become interested in less tan-gible product attributes such as theethical and environmental aspectsof a product’s manufacture. How-ever, consumers may be confusedby the variety of environmentallabelling found on products to thepoint where they cannot distin-guish between competing products

in terms of the environmentalimpact claimed by their manu-facturers, and are thus unable toexpress preferences throughtheir purchases. ISO 14021 setsspecific rules and gives guidanceon commonly used claims.

Monitoring nuclear energy

In the field of nuclear energy,the job of setting safe radiationlimits is that of national govern-ments and the InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA).However, internationally recog-nized tests are needed to showcompliance with national regula-tions and IAEA safety standards.ISO, through the work of its com-mittee ISO/TC 85, has achievedworldwide recognition for itsstandards covering technologiesfor nuclear facilities, equipmentand materials – and their testing.As a result, there is strong US in-terest in having its nuclear-relatedstandards adopted by ISO in orderto give them higher visibility andinternational recognition. In 1999,ISO and the American Society forTesting and Materials (ASTM)agreed to a pilot project aimed athaving a batch of ASTM projectson food irradiation dosimetryadopted as ISO Standards.

Environmental performance

In today’s environment-con-scious context, few companies canafford to ignore government regu-lations, shareholder concerns andstakeholder expectations regard-ing the impact of their businessactivities on the environment.Many organizations, therefore,have been seeking ways to under-stand, demonstrate and improvetheir environmental performance.Published in 1999, ISO 14031 givesorganizations guidelines on thedesign and use of environmentalperformance evaluation (EPE). Itis accompanied by a technical re-port, ISO/TR 14032 which givesreal-life examples of EPE as prac-tised by a range of organizationslarge and small, public and privatesector, in 10 countries.

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Safe sport, toys andbuilding foundations

How tolerable is tolerablerisk?

Over the years, safety consid-erations have played an increas-ingly important role in definingthe content of ISO standards inmany different fields. Society hascome to demand that all activitiesbe free from risk to the person –

Doping control in sport

Safety-related standards illus-trate once again that ISO has notonly economic motivations andtechnical competencies but also arespect for social responsibility. Alandmark in this context was ISO’sadoption in 1999 of its PubliclyAvailable Specification for Dop-ing Control in Sport. This specifi-cation has the enthusiastic supportof government and sporting asso-ciations in Australia, Canada, NewZealand, Norway, the Netherlands,Sweden and the United Kingdom.They believe that ISO’s adoptionof this specification will signifi-cantly increase its rate of world-wide acceptance by their own andother’s governments, sports organi-zations and athletes.

Protecting children

Statistics show that injury is amajor cause of death and disabil-ity among children. Experts devel-oping standards for householditems like microwave ovens andtelevisions may find it hard toimagine that children actually usethese products, but consumer be-haviour studies show otherwise. Inaddition, children’s natural curios-

ity can lead them to “interact”with products never meant forthem and this can lead to unhappyconsequences. ISO has long recog-nized that standards can andshould play a key role in prevent-ing injuries to children and in 1999published a revised edition ofISO/IEC Guide 50, giving the lat-est thinking on guidelines for theincorporation of child safety as-pects in standards. The Guide con-tains information that may also bedirectly useful to designers, archi-tects, manufacturers, service pro-viders, communicators, safety pro-fessionals and the like. By readingabout the possible interactions ofchildren with hazards, they may bestimulated to adapt their productsand services accordingly.

or, at least, that risk is kept totolerable levels. This concept of“tolerable risk” is presented inthe new version of ISO/IECGuide 51, which gives guidelinesfor the inclusion of safety aspectsin standards. “Tolerable risk” isdefined as risk which is acceptedin a given context, based on thecurrent values of society. The re-vised Guide benefits from theexplosion in the intellectual de-velopment of safety concepts, aswell as from the development ofsafety-related technologies andtheir application to the actualwork of reducing risk.

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Making play safe for thechildren of the world

Hundreds of thousands of chil-dren are estimated to be injuredeach year in accidents caused bytoys. Many national toy safetystandards exist, but industry expertsinvolved in the development of theISO 8124 family believe that theseinternationally agreed documents

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9 are not only more comprehensive,but will also reduce the costs oftesting and approval of toys – anultimate benefit for the consumer.The latest standard, which dealswith the mechanical and physicalsafety aspects, refers not only to thenormal use of toys, but, as far aspossible, also makes allowancefor the fact that children often puta toy to a different use than thatfor which it was designed. Thestandard also aims, therefore, toprevent accidents which happendue to foreseeable misuse of atoy. If manufacturers now complywith the provisions of the threestandards in the ISO 8124 family,the number of accidents is expectedto drop considerably.

Building on standards

The theme of World StandardsDay 1999 was, “Building on Stand-ards”. Throughout the history ofmankind, construction has beenone of the basic human activitiesand has supplied some of the ear-liest examples of standardization.Today, standards need to be sharedand applied on a practical dailybasis by the many professionals in-volved in the construction industry.These range from designers, archi-tects and civil engineers to manu-facturers, regulators and contrac-tors, all the way to companies whichspend billions on constructiongoods and related services everyyear. The standards they refer torange from the obvious buildingstandards to those covering tele-communications, electrical installa-tions, electronics, networking andthe associated safety standards.

Management systemstandards

One of the first words instandardization

Compatibility is one of the pri-mary aims and benefits of stand-ardization. It can apply to equip-ment, software, methods – and tomanagement systems. The publica-tion of ISO 14001 – ISO’s secondmanagement system standard –

generated the need for reassurancethat this environmental standardwould be compatible with its qual-ity management predecessorsof the ISO 9000 family. ISO usedthe opportunity of the ISO 9000revision process to achieve a highdegree of compatibility betweenthe quality and environmentalstandards. In 1999, it also launchedthe development of ISO 19011, ajoint auditing standard which,when published in 2001, will avoidorganizations that implement boththe expense and complication ofseparate audits of their integratedmanagement systems. The devel-opment of guidelines for draftingmanagement system standardswas also set in motion so that anyfuture such standards will havecompatibility designed into themfrom the start.

ü ISO 9000

ISO 14000ü

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Annual production

Generalities, infrastructuresand sciences

Portfolio of ISO standardsand draft InternationalStandards by technicalsector as of end 1999

Quality may have the lastword

Highly visible in 1999 wereISO’s efforts to ensure that thetransition to the new, enhancedversions of the ISO 9000 standardswould be as smooth as possiblefor current and future users. There-fore, the development of the ISO9000 revisions is being carried outin synergy with a whole series ofsupporting measures to captureuser requirements and feedback onthe evolving documents at eachstage of their development in orderto improve them still further.Added to these measures aimed atproduct enhancement are commu-nication services, such as the post-ing of regular updates on the ISOWeb site (www.iso.ch), that aim tokeep ISO 9000 stakeholders in theinformation loop as the revisionsprogress. One of the aspects of qual-ity management which is empha-sized in the new ISO 9000 versionsis continual improvement. ISOis not merely preaching this as aprinciple, but the organization isalso putting it into practice in thedevelopment process of its stand-ards. Fittingly, as ISO’s best knownstandard, ISO 9000 may well havethe final word in being among thelast ISO standards published at theend of the 20th century: the ISO9000 revisions are targetted forpublication in late 2000.

961 new and revised Interna-tional Standards in 1999.

ISO’s total portfolio as of end1999: 12 524 International Stand-ards.

Present indications suggest thatannual standards production willremain at approximately thesame level for the next few years.

42 422 pages in English andFrench in 1999.

ISO’s total output of pages as ofend 1999: 356 427 pages.

Standards published

Number of pages

Health, safety andenvironment

Engineering technologies

Electronics, information tech-nology and telecommunications

Transport and distribution ofgoods

Agriculture and foodtechnology

Materials technologies

Construction

Special technologies

0

12000

24000

36000

48000

60000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

0

300

600

900

1200

1500

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

DIS/FDIS

7,8%5,3%

5,2 %

16,2 %

11,8 %

22,9%

2,3 % 0,3 %

28,2%

International

Standards

9,1%

3,8 %

22,9 %

14,8 %10,6 %

6,7 %

29,1%

2,0 % 1,0 %

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ISO’sstructure

GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Annual business meeting

All ISO members

COUNCIL*

Organizationalgovernance

Principal officers and18 elected members

POLICYDEVELOPMENTCOMMITTEES (PDCS)

Conformityassessment (CASCO)

Consumer policy(COPOLCO)

Developing countrymatters (DEVCO)

Information systems andservices (INFCO)

COUNCIL STANDINGCOMMITTEES

Finance

Strategies

AD HOC ADVISORYGROUPS

CENTRALSECRETARIAT

Member services

Secretariats for GeneralAssembly, Council, PDCs

and TechnicalManagement Board

Support services fortechnical committees and

subcommittees

Publications

Information and promotion

Programme fordeveloping countries

TECHNICALMANAGEMENTBOARD

Overall management oftechnical committee andsubcommittee structure

Establishes and dissolvestechnical committees

Delineation of technicalcommittees’ scopes

Coordinationissues

Appeals

Committee onreference materials(REMCO)

TECHNICALCOMMITTEES

TECHNICALADVISORYGROUPS

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*Council members in 1999 AFNOR (France) • ANSI (USA) • BIS (India) • BSI (United Kingdom)

• CSNI (Czech Republic) • DIN (Germany) • DSM (Malaysia) • JBS (Jamaica) • JISC (Japan) • PSB

(Singapore) • SABS (South Africa) • SAI (Australia) • SCC (Canada) • SIS (Sweden) • SLSI (Sri Lanka) •SNV (Switzerland) • TSE (Turkey) • TTBS (Trinidad and Tobago)

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was elected President of ISO for the 1999-2000term, and served as President of the Italianstandards body (UNI) from 1985 until the be-ginning of 1999. Prof. Elias has been a Univer-sity Professor since 1975 and currently holdsthe Chair of Applied Physics at the Faculty ofAgriculture of the University of Milan. Among

was elected ISO Vice-President (policy) for the1998-1999 term. He is Chairman of the JISCCouncil for ISO and Executive Advisor to theJapanese Standards Association (JSA). Heserved as Chairman of the ISO Technical Com-mittee on steel from 1981 to 1995; since 1986 hehas been very active serving as representative

Akira Aoki

Vice-President (policy) – Japan

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of the Japanese Industrial Standards Commit-tee (JISC) on ISO governance bodies andmanagerial ad hoc groups. Mr. Aoki has mademany contributions to the research and indus-trial standardization activities in the Japaneseiron and steel industry; he worked for morethan 30 years for the Nippon Steel Corpora-tion in managerial positions and has honorarypermanent membership in the Japan Iron andSteel Institute.

was re-appointed as Vice-President (tech-nical management) for a second term ofoffice, 1997-1999. As such, he also fills thepost of Chairman of the Technical Manage-ment Board. Mr. Kean joined the CanadianStandards Association in 1958 and occupied

John Kean

Vice-President (technical management)Canada

various posts in its Canadian and Europeanoperations until his appointments as Manag-ing Director in 1974 and President in 1981, afunction he fulfilled until the end of 1998. SinceJanuary 1999 he has been Special Advisor tothe President and CEO, CSA International.

Pierre Amsler

Treasurer – Switzerland

Prof. Giacomo Elias

President – Italy

was re-elected ISO Treasurer for a secondterm of office, 1999-2001. He is currentlyPresident of Amsler & Bombeli S.A., a civilengineering and geotechnics firm, whichhe founded himself in Geneva in 1979.

other appointments, he served as President ofthe European Standardization Committee(CEN) during the period 1993-1994. He is theauthor of over 100 publications of a scientificand technical nature, is a member of severaleditorial boards of scientific magazines, andis registered as a professional journalist.

Mr. Amsler has a strong background in engi-neering, which he acquired both in Switzer-land and abroad, as well as broad experiencein executive-level management.

has held this post since 1986, having joinedISO in 1980 as Assistant Secretary-General.Prior to this he held executive-level positionsin the USA at the National Bureau of Stand-ards, now the National Institute of Standards

Lawrence D. Eicher

Secretary-General

and Technology (NIST), including Directorof the Office of Engineering Standards.He has a broad background in academia andin research, specializing in physical chemistry.

Principalofficers

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Membership

At the end of 1999, ISO’s

worldwide membership

comprised the principal

standards organizations

of 132 countries.

Of these, 90 were member

bodies, which are entitled to

participate and exercise full

voting rights within ISO.

ISO also counted 34 corres-

pondent members. These are

usually organizations in

countries that do not yet have

a fully developed national

standards activity.

Correspondent members

do not take an active part in

ISO’s technical work and have

no voting rights, but are

entitled to attend meetings as

observers and to be kept fully

informed about the work of

interest to them.

In addition, ISO had eight

subscriber members. These

are from countries with very

small economies. They pay

reduced membership fees that

nevertheless allow them to be

in contact with international

standardization.

Albania (DPS) • Algeria (IANOR) • Argentina (IRAM) • Armenia

(SARM) • Australia (SAI) • Austria (ON) • Bangladesh (BSTI) •Barbados (BNSI) • Belarus (BELST) • Belgium (IBN) • Bosnia and

Herzegovina (BASMP) • Botswana (BOBS) • Brazil (ABNT) • Bulgaria

(BDS) • Canada (SCC) • Chile (INN) • China (CSBTS) • Colombia

(ICONTEC) • Costa Rica (INTECO) • Croatia (DZNM) • Cuba (NC)

• Cyprus (CYS) • Czech Republic (CSNI) • Denmark (DS) •Ecuador (INEN) • Egypt (EOS) • Ethiopia (QSAE) • Finland (SFS)

• France (AFNOR) • Germany (DIN) • Ghana (GSB) • Greece

(ELOT) • Hungary (MSZT) • Iceland (STRI) • India (BIS) • Indo-

nesia (BSN) • Iran, Islamic Republic of (ISIRI) • Ireland (NSAI) • Israel

(SII) • Italy (UNI) • Jamaica (JBS) • Japan (JISC) • Kazakhstan

(KAZMEMST) • Kenya (KEBS) • Korea, Democratic People’s Repub-

lic of (CSK) • Korea, Republic of (KATS) • Kuwait (KOWSMD) •Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LNCSM) • Luxembourg (SEE) • Malaysia

(DSM) • Mauritius (MSB) • Mexico (DGN) • Mongolia (MNCSM)

• Morocco (SNIMA) • Netherlands (NNI) • New Zealand (SNZ) •Nigeria (SON) • Norway (NSF) • Pakistan (PSI) • Panama

(COPANIT) • Philippines (BPS) • Poland (PKN) • Portugal (IPQ) •Romania (ASRO) • Russian Federation (GOST R) • Saudi Arabia

(SASO) • Singapore (PSB) • Slovakia (UNMS) • Slovenia (SMIS) •South Africa (SABS) • Spain (AENOR) • Sri Lanka (SLSI) • Sweden

(SIS) • Switzerland (SNV) • Syrian Arab Republic (SASMO) •Tanzania, United Republic of (TBS) • Thailand (TISI) • The Former

Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (ZSM) • Trinidad and Tobago (TTBS)

• Tunisia (INNORPI) • Turkey (TSE) • Ukraine (DSTU) • United

Kingdom (BSI) • Uruguay (UNIT) • USA (ANSI) • Uzbekistan

(UZGOST) • Venezuela (FONDONORMA) • Viet Nam (TCVN) •Yugoslavia (SZS) • Zimbabwe (SAZ)

Member bodies

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Correspondent members Subscriber members

Azerbaijan (AZGOST) • Bahrain (BSMD) • Bolivia (IBNORCA) •Brunei Darussalam (CPRU) • Côte d’Ivoire (CODINORM) • El Sal-

vador (CONACYT) • Estonia (EVS) • Georgia (GEOSTAND) • Gua-

temala (COGUANOR) • Guinea (INNM) • Hong Kong, China

(IDHKSAR) • Jordan (JISM) • Kyrgyzstan (KYRGYZST) • Latvia (LVS)

• Lebanon (LIBNOR) • Lithuania (LST) • Madagascar (BNM) • Ma-

lawi (MBS) • Malta (MSA) • Moldova, Republic of (MOLDST) • Mo-

zambique (INNOQ) • Namibia (NSIQO) • Nepal (NBSM) • Nica-

ragua (DGCYT) • Oman (DGSM) • Papua New Guinea (NISIT) •Paraguay (INTN) • Peru (INDECOPI) • Qatar (QS) • Seychelles

(SBS) • Sudan (SSMO) • Turkmenistan (MSIT) • Uganda (UNBS)

• United Arab Emirates (SSUAE)

Benin (DPQC) • Cambodia

(ISC) • Congo, the Democratic

Republic of the (OCC) • Domi-

nican Republic (DIGENOR) •F i j i (FTSQCO) • G renada

(GDBS) • Guyana (GNBS) •Saint Lucia (SLBS)

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ISO member bodies’contribution tothe standards process

Technical and administrativeservices for ISO technical bodiesare provided by ISO memberbodies. In 1999, the followingmember bodies held secretariatsand convenorships of technicalcommittees (TC), subcommittees(SC) and working groups (WG).

ABNT (Brazil) 4 4

AENOR (Spain) 6 8

AFNOR (France) 82 186

ANSI (USA) 140 453

ASRO (Romania) 1 –

BIS (India) 10 4

BPS (Philippines) – 1

BSI (United Kingdom) 113 339

CSBTS (China) 6 16

CSNI (Czech Republic) 1 3

DIN (Germany) 130 360

DS (Denmark) 8 33

DSM (Malaysia) 2 2

ELOT (Greece) 2 1

GOST R 15 9(Russian Federation)

IBN (Belgium) 5 19

ICONTEC (Colombia) 1 –

IPQ (Portugal) 3 5

ISIRI 4 –(Iran, Islamic Rep. of)

JISC (Japan) 32 96

KATS – 1(Republic of Korea)

MSZT (Hungary) 2 –

NNI (Netherlands) 21 77

NSAI (Ireland) – 2

NSF (Norway) 17 34

ON (Austria) 2 12

PKN (Poland) 5 4

PSB (Singapore) – 3

SAI (Australia) 12 40

SABS (South Africa) 8 1

SCC (Canada) 20 64

SEE (Luxembourg) – 1

SFS (Finland) 3 9

SII (Israel) 3 2

SIS (Sweden) 33 88

SNV (Switzerland) 22 35

SNZ (New Zealand) 2 3

TSE (Turkey) 4 –

UNI (Italy) 17 38

UNMS (Slovakia) 3 –

The ISO Central Secretariat inGeneva coordinates the meetingschedules, the flow of documen-tation in all directions, clarifiestechnical points with chairmen andsecretaries of the technical bodies,and ensures that the agreementsapproved by the committees areedited, printed, submitted as draftInternational Standards to ISOmember bodies for voting, andpublished as International Stan-dards. These activities are carriedout at the ISO Central Secretariatby a staff of 165.

The operational expenditure forISO’s work is estimated at 150 mil-lion Swiss Francs, of which one fifthfinances the Central Secretariat.

Resources of theISO Central Secretariat

Distribution of the 1999 costsof the ISO Central Secretariat

Standards developmentand publications

User support services

Sales and marketingof publications

Member services

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Member body

Numberof

secre-tariats

(TC/SC)

Numberof

convenor-ships(WG)

62 %14%

12 %

12 %

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Financialstatement

166

17

Revenue and expenditureat 31 December 1999

Membership subscriptions 18 431 18 927

Operating income

Sales of publications 4 299 5 640

Royalties 3 916 3 917

Other services invoiced 719 221

ISO 9000 + ISO 14000 Newssubscriptions 548 567

Financial income 288 264

28 201 29 536

Salaries and social charges 20 844 21 125

Rental & maintenance 2 957 3 091

Other running costs 3 324 3 274

General Assembly 273 143

Capital investment* 483 1 460

27 881 29 093

RESULTS surplus/(deficit) 320 443

TRANSFER (to)/from provisions

General Assemblies 15 (150)

Provisions for specific projects 595 (93)

Building reserve 0 (250)

General fund 135 50

Amortization* (1 065)

0 0

1998CHF 000

1999CHF 000

TOTAL REVENUE

TOTAL EXPENDITURE

NET RESULTS

Revenue account

Operating expenditure

* New amortizationpolicyapplied in1999

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Balance sheetat 31 December 1999

Fixed assets

Installation and equipment 1 018 0

Long term assets

Securities 6 566 6 565

ISO endowments 917 873

7 483 7 438Current and liquid assets

Cash, Bank, Post 1 279 271

Debtors and prepayment 2 965 3 370

Short-term bank deposits 4 100 5 050Income receivable 95 142

8 439 8 833

8 439 16 940 16 271

Current liabilities

Suppliers 1 338 1 125

Other creditors 734 1 051

Social charges to be paid 256 258

Member subscriptionspaid in advance 634 657

Income received in advance 271 254

3 233 3 345

Provision for specific projects 2 594 2 103

Trust funds received forspecific projects

ISO endowments 917 873

Other financed seminars 361 (20)

1 278 853

General fund 9 835 9 970

16 940 16 271

1998CHF 000

1999CHF 000

TOTAL ASSETS

TOTAL LIABILITIES

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ISO Annual Report 1999ISO Rapport annuel 1999

ISBN 92-67-10317-2

Photographs:Front Cover, pages 1, 2, 3, 10, 11:Image Bank;page 3 (top): Prisma;

Creation and design:Promotion and Press ServicesISO Central Secretariat

Printing:ISO Central Secretariat,Switzerland

© ISO 2000-04/4 500

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ISO Central Secretariat

1, rue de VarembéCase postale 56CH-1211 Genève 20Switzerland

Tel. + 41 22 749 01 11Fax + 41 22 733 34 30E-mail central@iso.chWeb www.iso.ch

ISBN 92-67-10317-2© ISO 2000-04/4500