IEC Asia Pacific Regional Centre moves to larger premises in Singapore

Conference room with view over Singapore

The IEC APRC (Asia-Pacific Regional Centre) opened in Singapore in 2002 as a regional promotional centre with Dennis Chew as sole representative. His IEC background was as NC (National Committee) Secretary. In 2007 the centre increased its scope when Suzanne Yap joined as Technical Officer. She came from the consumer electronics industry, where she had dealt with regulators on approvals. Administrative Assistant Jacqueline Ong, who previously worked in the electronics industry and was secretary for Singapore's mirror IEC TCs (Technical Committees), joined later, raising the headcount to three.

This last month, November, the office moved to larger premises to make way for additional technical and editorial staff whose role will be to serve the TCs and SCs (Subcommittees) based in the region. A new Technical Editor, Richa Shridhar, will start in January 2009. The following month, another technical officer and administrative assistant will be hired to bring the total staff in the Singapore office to six. Together, they will be able to answer questions in five languages: English, Chinese, Hindi, French and, to a lesser extent, Korean.

Previously the APRC occupied an open space room in the Podium Block of SPRING (Standards, Productivity and Innovation Board) Singapore, where the standardization division is. APRC’s new premises will be on the 15th floor of the Tower Block SPRING Singapore building. The staff will have their own entrance and special card-access to 100 square metres with refined wireless guest access to a broadband Internet network, separate offices, a meeting room and refreshments area.

The improved office environment and additional space is all part of a global recruitment plan to hire new IEC employees locally. It has been adopted on the basis of excellent feedback received from IEC Members and TC/SC Officers, major stakeholders from industry and regulatory and government bodies based in the region. They appreciate the "local" contact and the additional assistance they receive in "real time", which help them participate further in standardization and conformity assessment processes.

Commenting on the expansion of the APRC office, IEC General Secretary & CEO Ronnie Amit said, "The Asia-Pacific office shows the IEC's ability to undertake the technical function in a de-centralized way, and follows on from the experience gathered in our North American office since 2000."

Cubicle administrative space

Reception area

Passage to offices