¡¡¡¡BEIJING, Nov. 1 (Xinhuanet) -- Chinese companies were encouraged to play a bigger role in developing international standards, at the 66th General Meeting of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) which ended in Beijing on Friday.

¡¡¡¡Ronnie Amit, IEC General Secretary, said Chinese companies needed to participate more in developing international standards, which though costing money would benefit imports and exports.

¡¡¡¡"We expect China to play a larger role in the IEC since China has been active in the IEC for some 66 years and its export quantity reflects the country's efforts in adopting massive international standards," he said.

¡¡¡¡The meeting attracted over 1,800 domestic and overseas experts with about 300 from China's 60 research institutions and 59 companies.

¡¡¡¡The Haier Group was China's only enterprise to present a proposal at the annual meeting of the IEC. The proposal, on how toprevent water from being electrified in water heaters, was accepted by the IEC.

¡¡¡¡Standards have been important competitive tools for most international companies, but China, a key world manufacturer, was mainly following international standards instead of developing them, said Yu Zida, Vice President of the Haier Group, who gave the presentation to the meeting.

¡¡¡¡China has introduced 8,621 international standards including 1,911, or 45.8 percent of the IEC standards, into its 19,774 state certification standards.

¡¡¡¡China joined the IEC in 1957. Founded in 1906, it is the world's oldest standardization body for electrotechnical products. Enditem