Riyadh: The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has unveiled the new international quality management system standard, ISO 9001:2026, including the Arabic edition released alongside the international edition.
The move expands access to international standards in Arabic, supports organizations and specialists across the Arab region in capitalizing on global best practices in quality management systems, and demonstrates the productive cooperation and integration among Arab nations in this field.
President of the GCC Standardization Organization (GSO), Eng. Jabor Mohammed Al Naimi, said the achievement marks a consequential step toward expanding access to international standards for users and stakeholders in Arab nations, supporting the adoption of global best practices in quality management, improving institutional performance and strengthening competitiveness.
Al Naimi highlighted that the Arabic edition is the outgrowth of collaboration among members of the Arab Translation Management Group (ISO/TMB/ATMG), which is responsible for managing and carrying out the translation of international standards into Arabic.
The Egyptian Organization for Standardization and Quality (EOS) serves as the group's technical secretariat, with active participation from GSO as the group's rapporteur, alongside contributions from Arab standards bodies and experts involved in the translation and technical and linguistic review, he pointed out.
Eng. Al Naimi elaborated that the feat is a quintessential model of Arab cooperation in standardization, expands access to technical knowledge in Arabic, and helps broaden the benefits of international standards and support their implementation, stressing that what has been accomplished grew out of coordination and integration among all participating technical and implementing parties.
Generally, ISO 9001 is among the world's most widely used quality management system standards, and ISO 9001:2026 is the sixth edition of the standard.
It grew out of the periodic review of the previous ISO 9001:2015 edition and includes updates that enhance the clarity of requirements, ease of implementation and suitability for contemporary business environments, with greater emphasis on leadership, quality culture and ethical behavior, clearer treatment of risks and opportunities, and improved alignment with other management system standards.
The ISO technical committee ISO/TC 176/SC 2 is charged with preparing, reviewing and developing the standard as part of its work on quality management systems and their supporting documents, while the United Kingdom, represented by the British Standards Institution (BSI), serves as the committee's technical secretariat.
The GSO had previously adopted the standard's earlier editions as Gulf standards, while an update to the adopted Gulf standard based on the new edition has also been included in the 2027 plan of the Gulf team for management systems and sustainable development.
