Bangladesh Accreditation Board

The Bangladesh Accreditation Board is focused on scaling its accreditation capacity to meet the demand for rapid, ISO-compliant testing services to reduce trade bottlenecks.

BAB was constituted on 6 September 2006 by gazette notification under the Bangladesh Accreditation Act, 2006, and became operational with permanent staff from 2010. It is an autonomous statutory body under the Ministry of Industries; the Ministry Secretary serves as an ex-officio Board member. The Board's composition under the Act includes secretaries from six ministries, two nominated experts, the FBCCI president, a BUET professor, and heads of key CABs, with a government-appointed Chairman (3-year term) and the Director General as Member-Secretary. BAB became an ILAC Affiliate Member in 2010, a Full Member and ILAC/APAC MRA signatory for testing (ISO/IEC 17025) on 12 March 2015, and extended its MRA scope to medical testing (ISO 15189) and inspection (ISO/IEC 17020) on 15 January 2020. As of October 2024, BAB has accredited 144 CABs across all schemes. Current Director General is Md. Anwarul Alam, confirmed by name in the 26 February 2025 SARSO meeting reported by ILAC (May 2025 news item); predecessor Md. Monwarul Islam was DG as of September 2021 (Financial Express). Appointment date for Anwarul Alam could not be confirmed from available primary sources; head_since left null. Staff count and annual budget could not be verified from available primary sources. ILAC and IAF formally merged into the Global Accreditation Cooperation Incorporated on 1 January 2026; BAB's MRA arrangements continue under the unified framework. Wikipedia notes a recognition concern raised by Western Marine Shipyard's chairman that BAB certificates are 'sometimes not accepted in other countries'; the ILAC MRA is designed to address this but scope limitations may persist for non-MRA-covered schemes.