Malaysia and the ACA discussed

Mr Seng San Bing MSc (chairman of the FMM-MCTIG Malaysia) was elected as the new president of ACA. Other office bearers are Dr Alain Khaiat (CTFAS Singapore), who is the vice-president of scientific and technical affairs. Dr Preechakorn Suvanaphen (TCMA Thailand) is the vice-president for external affairs and Mrs Lee Pang is vice-president for internal affairs. Secretary of the Association is Mrs Arshad Lilywati (FMM-MCITG Malaysia) and Mrs Jessica Plana (CCIP Philippines) continues in the position as treasurer. Some of the highlights of the meeting include the ACA agreeing to continue working together with regional cosmetics associations, KCA (Korea), JCIA (Japan) and CAFFCI (China). Also, the ACA intends to work together with government agencies to help support the best regulatory practices. The Association created a safety and toxicology expert group and one of the first priorities was to propose and recommend a guideline to evaluate the safety of plant extracts to the ACSB. It was also discussed that the ACA actively participated in the ISO meetings held in Paris this year and that the Association is to hold the ASEAN Cosmetics Leaders Forum biennially (i.e. every two years). As a result of the forum held this year, the ACA has been asked to give input to SEOM, SG Asean and the Ministry of Trade and Industry Singapore on the difficulties encountered by the industry. Also, the ACA has been invited to participate in the Industry Regulations Forum on Health Care.

Top focus areas

Areas of focus include the need to continue keeping harmonisation on track and to proactively participate in ISO activities to minimise the business impact for the industry in ASEAN, especially for SMEs. The ACA also needs to continue to build a strong partnership with Colipa and drive the Asian Cosmetics Forum to open up new and equal opportunities for ASEAN industry representatives to enter new markets (Japan, Korea and especially China).