Pursuant to Article 10 Law on Standards and Technical Regulations, Vietnam’s standard system include National Standards (“TCVN”), and Institution Standards (“TCCS”). If a company does not use TCVN, international standards (ISO, IEC…), regional standards (EU…), or foreign standards (JIS, ASTM, GB…) to its products, it shall at least have the TCCS for manufacture and business implementation.
Pursuant to Circular No. 21/2007/TT-BKHCN, establishment, publication, and application of TCCS for the product shall be conducted as follows:
- Institution Standards mean the standards published by economic organizations, social professional organizations, state authorities, nonbusiness units, or other agencies or organizations for application to activities of those organizations.
- Requirements on TCCS:
- TCCS must not be contrary to current technical regulations and provisions of law.
- TCCS should be formulated to suit the scientific and technological advances and satisfy the management, manufacture, and business requirements of the institution.
- Grounds for the establishment of TCCS:
TCCS are formulated on the basis of results of scientific and technological research, technical advancements, experience, practical demands, and capability of the institution. The use of corresponding national standards, international standards, regional standards, or foreign standards is encouraged for the establishment or acceptance thereof into TCCS.
- Types of TCCS:
TCCS may include the following types:
- Technical requirement standards;
- Testing, measuring, and adjusting methods standards;
- Labeling, packing, transport, and preservation standards;
- Process standards;
- Service standards;
- Environmental standards.
Depending on their forms, operation scales, purposes, and internal management requirements, the institution may apply the above types or add the new types of standards to stipulate the classification of standards that suitable to their institution.
- Method of establishment TCCS:
TCCS may be established by the following basic methods:
- Accepting corresponding national standards, international standards, regional standards, or foreign standards into the TCCS;
- Formulating new TCCS on the basis of using results of scientific and technological research, results of tests, valuation, analysis, and experiments;
- Amending, supplementing the existing TCCS.
Order and procedures for establishment and publication of TCCS:
- Depending on the manufacture and business scales and forms of the institution, the order and procedures for establishment and publication of TCCS may include the following steps:
- Step 1: Make plans for the establishment of TCCS;
- Step 2: Drafting the TCCS;
- Step 3: Organizing the gathering of comments on drafting TCCS;
- Step 4: Organizing seminars on drafting TCCS;
- Step 5: Processing comments and finalizing the draft of TCCS;
- Step 6: Compiling dossiers on drafting TCCS;
- Step 7: Verifying the draft of TCCS;
- Step 8: Publication of TCCS;
- Step 9: Printing the TCCS.
- Publication of TCCS:
Institution heads consider and decide in writing on the publication of TCCS. The dossiers on drafting TCCS are archived at the institution.
- Demonstration of contents and presentation of TCCS:
- Symbols of TCCS are demonstrated as follows:
- The code and year of publication of the TCCS is separated by a colon (:) and placed after the TCCS symbol;
- The abbreviated name of the institution that publishes the TCCS is placed after the year of publication of the TCCS and separated by a slash.
Example:TCCS 27:2006/XXX is the symbol of the TCCS numbered 27, established and published in 2006 by a company bearing the transaction name of XXX.
- Contents of TCCS cover the following details:
- Table of contents;
- Opening information;
- Fundamental part (outline, technical section);
- Additional information.
The framework, forms of presenting and displaying the contents of TCCS may refer to TCVN 1-2 on presentation and display of contents of national standards.
TCCS should be presented in a brief, clear, accurate, readable, error-free manner, not causing confusion and misinterpretation.
- TCCS can be bound loosely or into standard collections according to standard subjects or objects.
- Pages of TCCS should be numbered and can be printed in the form of loose sheets for convenient supplementation, cancellation, or replacement of contents. TCCS may have a cover sheet or not.
- Based on this general guidance, the institution draws up processes and specific guidance on the establishment of TCCS suitable to their respective conditions and operation scales.
