Under an initial four-year agreement, the Public Health Ministry's Department of Medical Science is required to develop a system to improve the quality of WHO health and medical laboratories, Public Health Minister Pinij Charusombat said.

The laboratory quality development system has been created to help other countries improve

their systems to meet WHO standards.

It is primarily aimed at training medical professionals who will go on to become trainers in laboratories in their own countries.

The Thai collaborating centre is the only one of its kind, according to Pinij.

The Department of Medical Science has a number of health and medical laboratories located across Thailand that have been accredited by external quality-control bodies.

Currently, those laboratories are certified to internationally recognised standards with ISO 15189 and ISO/IEC 17025 certificates.

The department has also been collaborating with international bodies on health laboratory quality development, including the Asia Pacific and International Laboratory Accreditation Co-operation, said Pinij.

The WHO appointment puts Thailand in a position to take a crucial role in the transfer of knowledge on laboratory quality development to other countries, mainly in Southeast Asia and Africa, said Dr Phaijit Varachit, director-general of the Department of Medical Science.

"This will benefit the countries, particularly in the face of epidemics such as avian flu as well as other resurgent diseases such as tuberculosis," he said.

The official title of the Thai venture will be the WHO Collaborating Centre for Strengthening Quality Systems in Health Laboratories.