SIRIM Berhad

SIRIM Berhad is Malaysia's national organisation for standards, quality and industrial research. A wholly government-owned company under the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI), SIRIM operates in testing, inspection, certification and technology development, and acts as the appointed agent of the Department of Standards Malaysia for developing Malaysian Standards. It is the body that certifies organisations against ISO/IEC 42001, the international standard for artificial intelligence management systems.

History

Malaysia's standards system began with the Standards Institution of Malaysia (SIM), established in 1966 and made the national standards body by the Standards Act of that year. In 1975 SIM merged with the National Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (NISIR) to form the Standards and Industrial Research Institute of Malaysia (SIRIM), a statutory body under the SIRIM (Incorporation) Act 1975.^[1][2] SIRIM was corporatised as SIRIM Berhad on 1 September 1996, and the Department of Standards Malaysia was established afterwards to carry out national standardisation and accreditation. Its certification arm, SIRIM QAS International, was formed in 1997.^[1]

SIRIM expanded through regional branches and national laboratories, including the National Metrology Laboratory (rebranded the National Metrology Institute of Malaysia in 2015). In October 2018 SIRIM Berhad was transferred from MOSTI to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry.^[1] Today SIRIM is the operational workhorse behind thousands of Malaysian Standards covering electrical and electronic products, management systems, construction and food safety.^[2]

Artificial intelligence and standards work

SIRIM sits at the implementation end of Malaysia's AI governance stack. The Department of Standards Malaysia develops Malaysian Standards and adopts international frameworks such as ISO/IEC 42001:2023 — the world's first AI Management System (AIMS) standard — to establish requirements for transparency, safety, accountability and trustworthiness in AI systems. The MY-AI Standards portal, a national gateway operated with the standards ecosystem, indexes more than 80 international AI standards and helps Malaysian organisations identify the frameworks relevant to their governance objectives.^[3]

In November 2025, at the Majlis SIRIM Industri 2025, SIRIM announced two new certifications: the AI Management System Certification (ISO/IEC 42001) and the Innovation Management System Certification (MS ISO 56001). The AI certification gives Malaysian organisations a structured, auditable framework for managing AI ethically and accountably, reducing risk and aligning AI solutions with internationally recognised principles of safety and reliability.^[4] SIRIM's Management System Certification Department describes ISO/IEC 42001 as turning AI innovation into trusted intelligence for industry.^[3]

Beyond management-system certification, SIRIM's testing and laboratory capabilities extend to evaluating AI-enabled products and technical systems, supporting conformity assessment for manufacturers and exporters.

Applications or Impact

For enterprises, SIRIM's ISO/IEC 42001 certification provides the independent evidence that procurement teams, regulators and overseas customers increasingly require before approving AI systems — particularly in banking, government and export manufacturing. For the broader ecosystem, SIRIM converts national AI policy into operational practice: where the National AI Office sets direction and MDEC drives adoption, SIRIM provides the standards, testing and certification layer that makes Malaysian AI offerings demonstrably trustworthy in regional and global supply chains.

>See Also

• MIMOS
• ISO/IEC 42001
• MDEC Malaysia
• Malaysia AI Governance Framework
• National AI Office Malaysia
• Responsible AI