36th General Assembly of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was held in Russian city St. Petersburg, from 16 to 21 September 2013. Host of this year's General Assembly was Russian Federal Agency on Technical Regulating and Metrology (GOST R). As representatives of the Institute for Standardization of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. Aleksandar Cincar, Director of the Institute and Tihomir Andjelic, Head of standardization department in the field of ISO/CEN participated in the work of the Assembly.

Within 36th General Assembly, from  16-17 September 2013, 47th annual meeting of ISO Committee on Developing Country Matters - DEVCO was held. DEVCO currently has 155 members (102 participating and 53 observing countries). Bosnia and Herzegovina has been actively participating in DEVCO’s work for years. Mr. Beer Buddha, Secretary General, presented a detailed report on the implementation of current Action Plan for Developing Countries 2011 – 2015, focusing on the second year of its implementation. Representatives of the Institute participated in two working groups which discussed the topics relevant to standardization in developing countries. The conclusions of this meeting were adopted as resolutions and passed on to the General Assembly.

Main part of the 36th ISO General Assembly was held from 18 to 20 September 2013. The General Assembly was opened and chaired by current President of ISO, Mr. Terry Hill, who emphasized  that 77 % of ISO members are developing and 23% of members are developed countries. ISO currently has 163 member countries, which represents 97 % of the world population. Delegates from national standards bodies and representatives of international and regional organizations from 128 countries participated in this year’s work of the General Assembly.

The inaugural speech was given by Mr. Grigory Elkin, president of the Russian Federal Agency for Technical Regulating and Metrology (GOST R), as a host, and Mr. Gleb Nikita, Deputy Minister of Trade of the Russian Federation, who also read the message of the Russian Prime Minister, Mr Dmitry Medvedev.

The following issues were discussed at the Assembly: the implementation of ISO Strategic Plan 2011 - 2015, standardization from the of IEC, ISO, ITU and WTO point of view; application of ISO POCOSA and copyright for standards as well as number of statutory, administrative and financial issues within  the scope of responsibilities of the General Assembly. 

Within the General Assembly, on September 19th, a one-day open meeting was held. This year’s novelty was that the participants had the opportunity to visit some of the Russia's most important organizations and to learn about their use of standards (world's leading brewery, university, water utility, companies in the field of optoelectronics, etc). Representatives of the Institute participated in two open meetings in OAO Brewery Company “Baltika” and ZAO ”Svetlana – Optoelectronics”. The conclusion of the meetings was that all companies that understand the importance of standards and its application in their production processes benefited greatly through increased competitiveness, improved product quality, easier marketing of products, reduced costs, etc.

This year's Lawrence D. Eicher Leadership award for excellence in creative and innovative standards development was presented to international technical committee ISO/TC 68, Financial Service, on the third day of the General Assembly.

This year's winner of the ISO Prize award, created on the recommendation of Mr. Boris Aleshin, previous President of ISO, is Mrs. Hulda Olivier Giesbrecht from Brazil for SEBRAE Project - working with small businesses in Brazil. This award aims to encourage individuals to contribute in better understanding and use of ISO standards.