The 16th APLAC General Assembly and Technical Committee Meeting and 26th APLAC MRA Council Meeting was held December 4-10 in Osaka, Japan. The meeting was jointly hosted by IAJapan, JAB and VLAC. IAS was represented by Vice President Raj Nathan at the meeting. Among the highlights of the meeting were:

1. AIHA-LAP, LLC (USA) was accepted as a signatory to the APLAC MRA for testing and the recognition of JAB (Japan) was extended to include inspection.
2. The following APLAC signatory members were granted continuation of their signatory status: BLQS, DMSc, Thailand - testing and ISO 15189; BLA-DSS, Thailand – testing; PJLA, USA - testing and calibration; SAC, Singapore – testing, calibration, inspection and ISO 15189; Standards Malaysia, Malaysia – testing, calibration and ISO 15189; L-A-B, USA – testing and calibration.
3. Chang Kwei Fern of SAC was elected to the position of APLAC Chair for a two-year term commencing January 1, 2011.
4. Barry Ashcroft of IANZ was re-elected as MRA Council Chair for a further two-year term commencing on January 1, 2011.
5. Dr Koichi Nara (IAJapan) was elected to the position of Proficiency Testing Committee Chair. Zhang Mingxia (CNAS) was re-elected as Training Committee Chair, Trace McInturff (A2LA) was re-elected as Technical Committee chair and Alan Patterson (NATA) was re-elected to the position of Public Information Committee Chair. These appointments are for two years, commencing January 1, 2011. Patterson has since resigned as Chief Executive of NATA and, as such, also as Chair of the PIC. APLAC hopes to announce a new Chair for this Committee very soon.

The Osaka meeting commenced with the traditional opening ceremony addressing the delegates by leading Japanese Government Officials and Private Industry representatives. This was followed by the APLAC Technical Committee (TC); Training Committee (TR); Proficiency Committee (PT) and Public Information Committee (PIC) meetings. The APLAC MRA Council meeting was followed by the APLAC General Assembly. The closing ceremony was held with the traditional pomp and protocol highlighting the traditional dance and culture from the Kansai region of Japan.