Che Guevara's role in establishing standardization in Cuba evoked

HAVANA, Cuba, Oct 14 (ACN) The National Bureau of Standards (ONN) celebrates today World Standards Day by evoking one of the scientific contributions of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, who as Minister of Industries was the architect of this field in Cuba.

On September 5, 1961, Che applied for the Cuban Division of Technical Standards’ membership to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), a move revealing of his awareness of our nation’s need to develop its economy and make the most of international scientific-technical progress, according to an ONN communication on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of that memorable decision in the early years of the Cuban Revolution.

Moreover, the note remarks, he also launched a popular campaign for quality based on technical standardization, which marked the beginning in Cuba of Standardization, Metrology and Quality Control activity and paved the way for its current structures, capabilities and highly qualified staff.

Nowadays, Cuba is a member of international standardization’s top bodies: ISO, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).

ONN celebrates this new anniversary by recognizing the results of its Technical Committees (CTN) as developers of Cuban Standards and stepping stone for enterprise certification, laboratory accreditation and the National Codex Alimentarius Committee.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was established in 1963, during the World Health Conference organized by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization, and since then its objective has been to develop a joint program related to food standards.
In 2020 alone, and despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the Cuban CTNs contributed to the boom in regulations for food labeling, electronics, metrology, health and construction, according to official information.