ISO 17025 accreditation in Singapore and South East Asia: SAC-SINGLAS, Global ACI recognition and multi-country laboratories

Why laboratories in Singapore and South East Asia pursue ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation

The request usually comes from whoever relies on the result. A manufacturer's quality team wants a test report it can put in front of an overseas customer without a retest. A calibration client needs certificates that its own auditors will accept. A regional head office wants every group laboratory, in Singapore, Johor or Batam, reporting against the same criteria so that one site's figures can be compared with another's.

Public buying works differently. The Singapore Government Procurement Regime on GeBIZ is built on fairness, openness and competitiveness and awards on best value for money. It sets no standing ISO/IEC 17025 condition for suppliers, so read what each tender actually asks for. What the standard itself requires is set out in the ISO/IEC 17025 requirements guide.

SAC-SINGLAS: the route to ISO 17025 accreditation in Singapore

The Singapore Accreditation Council accredits laboratories to ISO/IEC 17025 under SAC-SINGLAS and publishes an online search of the organisations it has accredited. An application to SAC is an application for a defined scope: the tests or calibrations, the methods, the ranges and the site. Everything the assessors do afterwards is measured against that scope, so decide it before anything else. The ISO/IEC 17025 scope of accreditation guide covers how to write it.

SAC states that it is a member of the ILAC MRA and the APAC MRA. On 1 January 2026 ILAC and IAF combined into Global ACI, and the Global ACI MRA replaced the ILAC MRA. Its purpose is the international acceptance of accredited results, and signatories recognise one another as equivalent except where regulation or law prohibits it. No position on SAC's current Global ACI listing is claimed here: check it on the Global ACI list of recognised bodies for testing or calibration, as your scope requires.

A certificate that calls itself "ISO 17025 certified" and comes from a certification body is not accreditation, and it appears on no accreditation register. How to verify a laboratory's ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation and scope shows what to check.

ISO 17025 accreditation in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam

ISO 17025 accreditation in Malaysia

The Department of Standards Malaysia is Malaysia's accreditation body and keeps a public directory of the bodies it accredits. Its laboratory route is not described on this page. A Malaysian laboratory should ask Standards Malaysia directly how it accredits ISO/IEC 17025 laboratories and for which fields, then confirm that its own customers will accept that accreditation for the results they receive.

Indonesia and Vietnam

Vietnam's National Accreditation Bureau (BoA) runs accreditation there; its certification scheme, VICAS, is published on its site. Ask BoA for its laboratory scheme and application route. In Indonesia, go to the national accreditation body. Laboratories in the Philippines are covered in ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation in the Philippines.

Whether a laboratory outside Singapore can apply to SAC, or should use its own national body, is a question to put to both bodies before you apply. Do not assume either answer.

Local practice that changes an ISO/IEC 17025 project

One system, several laboratories

A group can run one quality manual, one document control and one internal audit programme across Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City. The technical evidence cannot be shared. Each laboratory needs its own method validation or verification, uncertainty budgets, equipment records, competence records and proficiency testing results for the work it performs, and each is witnessed where the work is done.

Records, languages and traceability across borders

Assessors read raw data, worksheets and method instructions, not just policies. Where bench records are kept in Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia or Vietnamese, agree with the accreditation body which languages its technical assessors can work in. Calibrations bought from another country still need an accredited provider whose scope covers the parameter and range; check it on that provider's own accreditation register. See equipment, calibration and metrological traceability.

How Sterling works in Singapore and South East Asia

Singapore laboratories are served from Sterling's Singapore office, with colleagues in Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City and 8,100+ client engagements in 60+ countries since 2003. Sterling does not accredit: SAC or your national accreditation body assesses the laboratory and decides, and we prepare your team and evidence for that assessment.

ISO 17025 accreditation in Singapore: laboratories' questions