From 13 to 16 November, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, an ISO regional workshop on the development of national standardization strategies (NSS) was held which was organized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in cooperation with the Agency for Standardization, Metrology and Certification of Uzbekistan (UZSTANDARD). 28 participants from 15 countries of Central and Eastern Europe and central Asia attended the workshop.

The goal of the workshop was to increase the participants' ability to determine the methodology of national standardization priorities, taking into account the economic, social and environmental aspects in their countries, as well as feedback from stakeholders.

National standardization strategy is one of the priority initiatives of ISO Action Plan for developing countries 2016-2020, i.e. the strengthening the strategic capacities of national standardization bodies.

The workshop presented a methodology for identifying national priorities for standardization and upgrading the experiences gained at similar workshops that were held during 2012. Overall, the NSS initiative aims to help ISO members to establish, update or improve (as appropriate) their NSS. In addition to publishing the NSS, ISO members benefiting from the NSS initiative should take concrete steps towards its implementation, and they should also consider integrating NSS development into basic strategic processes.

At this regional workshop Bosnia and Herzegovina was represented by Tihomir Anđelić and Mirjana Šućur from the Institute for Standardization of Bosnia and Herzegovina.