A large-scale reform of the technical regulation system has begun in Uzbekistan, aimed at transitioning to international standards. President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed decree UP-25, which abolishes outdated administrative control methods in the fields of metrology and conformity assessment. In the future, product quality control will be based on market principles, and the country's enterprises will gradually switch to recognized global standards.
Significant changes will also affect the structure of the industry. The Uzbek Center for Scientific Testing and Quality Control, better known as UzTest, loses its status as an independent legal entity and merges with the Uzbek Institute of Standards. All existing conformity assessment bodies previously operating in the center will be liquidated.
In parallel, the status of the Uzbek Accreditation Center (O'zakk) is changing, which now directly reports to the Cabinet of Ministers, and not to the Agency for Technical Regulation. The main outlines of the reforms were announced by Mirziyoyev on February 12 at a specialized meeting, which indicates the republic's intention to rapidly integrate into the international system of standards and quality control.