News

Main Objectives

The project's general objectives include taking a practical step in the global city of İstanbul to contribute to improving the region's global competitiveness, creating added value for Türkiye amid worldwide competition and during the process of harmonisation with the EU. In Türkiye, companies producing thermal insulation boards and waterproofing sheets allocate an average of around 0.4% of their turnover to R&D. One of the greatest barriers to R&D work is the lack of sufficient laboratory infrastructure in Türkiye, which means that innovative products must be sent abroad for testing at high cost.

In this context, the specific objectives to be pursued by this project can be listed as follows:

• To contribute to implementing pilot market surveillance and inspection mechanisms based on performance measurement for thermal insulation and waterproofing materials offered on the market within İstanbul; to contribute to improving the insulation industry's quality infrastructure through market surveillance and inspection practices based on product performance checks.
• To support R&D work by establishing laboratory infrastructure to measure the performance of innovative thermal insulation materials developed by local manufacturers; to ensure that funds transferred abroad for testing services benefit the national economy through the laboratory infrastructure to be established, thereby increasing global competitiveness.
• To support national energy efficiency strategies and policies for combating greenhouse gases by regularly examining product performance and preventing incorrect performance declarations that do not comply with the rules defined in regulations.
• To contribute to protecting end users in terms of price and quality; to support work to increase public awareness of the importance of insulation, energy efficiency and safe construction by contributing to the supply of safe products to the market under the Construction Products Regulation.

Scope

The Ministry of Environment and Urbanisation, designated as the body responsible for harmonising Construction Products Directive 89/106/EEC by Council of Ministers Decision No. 97/9196 dated 15.1.1997, completed the harmonisation work, and the Regulation was published in Official Gazette No. 24870 dated 08.09.2002. Under the published Regulation, products within the scope of the Construction Products Regulation must be placed on the market with CE marking from 01 January 2007.

Market surveillance and inspection is one of the prominent concepts in Türkiye's implementation of EU technical legislation on product safety. As a result of the creation of a single market among EU member states and the removal of border controls, market surveillance and inspection emerged as an indispensable tool for implementing the principle of free movement of goods while ensuring that products supplied to the market comply with Community legislation. In Türkiye, market surveillance and inspection comprises activities by public bodies authorised to prepare and implement technical legislation relating to products, to inspect or arrange inspection of whether a product has been manufactured in accordance with the relevant technical regulation and whether it is safe, when it is placed on the market, during distribution, or while it is on the market. They carry out market surveillance and inspection by checking the labels, markings, packaging and documentation of goods in circulation and, where necessary, through testing and analysis. Inspections concerning the safety of products on the market, and the measures taken as a result, directly affect the economy's two major actors: producers and consumers. While consumers need products that could adversely affect their health and safety to be kept off the market, producers consider their earnings and the market image of their products. In addition to improving society's quality of life by protecting human health, safety and the environment, market surveillance and inspection also benefits society, particularly economically.

The content of this publication, prepared under the İstanbul Development Agency's 2010 Knowledge-Oriented Economic Development Financial Support Programme for Non-Profit Organisations, does not reflect the views of the İstanbul Development Agency or the Ministry of Development of the Republic of Türkiye. Sole responsibility for its content rests with İZODER.

© April 2012