Recognising the growing interest in the adoption of standards and the need to foster an understanding of standards, the Department of Standards Malaysia introduced its special programme; the Standards Compliance Stewardship Programme for Enterprises or known as ESCAPE with the aim of helping the industry comply with standards through technical training and expert advisory services ranging from the awareness phase to the compliance phase.

In line with the slogan ‘from awareness to compliance’, ESCAPE focuses on helping the industry through the following initiatives:

1. Provide exposure to standard compliance and the importance of obtaining certification;
2. Provide training to strengthen understanding of relevant standards;
3. Guide companies in terms of documentation development and implementation of procedures that comply with standard requirements towards obtaining certification; and
4. Gap analysis to identify the company's availability in terms of compliance with standards through certification.

Five industrial sectors have been selected under the ESCAPE program where these sectors will increase from time to time namely;

1. Road Traffic Safety Management System (RTSMS)

   MS ISO 39001:2013 - Road traffic safety (RTS) management systems - Requirements with guidance for use, is a standard that provides guidance to organisations interacting with the road traffic system to reduce deaths and serious injuries caused by road accidents. The implementation of the ESCAPE RTSMS program is in line with the Government's Policy which is the National Transport Policy 2019-2025, Strategic Thrust 3.3 – “Ensure the safety aspects of the transport sector meet international standards”.

2. Business Continuity Management System (BCMS)

   ISO 22301:2019 - Security and resilience - Business continuity management systems – Requirements, is a standard that provides guidance to organisation (regardless of their size, location or activity) to develop a framework for planning, developing, implementing, monitoring and improving the organisation's Business Continuity Management System. The COVID-19 crisis that hit the whole world including Malaysia, resulted in many organisations being trapped without any preparations for business continuity. Therefore, the BCMS ESCAPE program helps the industry prepare a comprehensive action plan to ensure that the industry can continue operations after facing a disaster or threat.

3. Halal food

   MS 1500:2019 - Halal Food - General requirements, is a standard that guides organisations on basic guidelines in the field of halal food, especially for the manufacture and management of halal food. The initiative of the ESCAPE Halal Food program is in line with Key Economic Growth Activity (KEGA) 6 (Halal and Food Hub) which is to increase the potential of Malaysia's halal industry to grow more widely through Halal service providers and product manufacturers recognized by JAKIM.

4. Halal Cosmetics

   MS 2634:2019 - Halal Cosmetics – General requirements, is a standard that provides basic guidance to organisations in producing halal cosmetic products that are safe for consumers to use by using the Halal Built-in concept. The concept of Halal in cosmetic products is not only focused on Muslim consumers, but non-Muslim consumers have also started using halal cosmetic products such as skin care products and personal care products. Thus, with the existence of this Halal Cosmetics standard, it can realize Malaysia's strength as a pioneer and the main driver in developing the halal industry, especially in the cosmetics industry.

5. Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS)

MS ISO 45001:2018 - Occupational health and safety management systems - Requirements with guidance for use, is a standard that provides guidance to organisations on Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS); to enable organisations to provide safe and healthy workplaces by preventing work-related injury and ill health. The implementation of the ESCAPE OHSMS programme is in line with Strategic Thrust 5 under the Occupational Safety and Health Master Plan 2021-2025 (OSHMP 2025) which aims to improve the OSH practice management system, especially for the SMEs sectors.

For further enquiries, kindly email us at escape[at]jsm[dot]gov[dot]my