1. Overview of 11th G-I Meeting

With the backing of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and co-organized by Indonesia’s Directorate General of Land Transportation (DGLT) and JASIC, the 11th Government-Industry (G-I) Meeting was held 28-30 November 2006 in Jakarta, Indonesia with about 160 people from 17 countries/territories in attendance, including government representatives related to transport, environment, industry, and regulations; representatives of automobile manufacturers and other industry groups; and observers.

14 Asian territories:

Brunei, China, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand, Vietnam, ASEAN, Japan

2 observer countries:

Australia, South Africa

On 30 November, as a technical tour, the attendees visited automobile parts manufacturers’ plants (PT. Astra Autoparts Divisi Nusa Metal, PT. Inti Ganda Perdana, and PT. Gemala Kempa Daya).

2. Results of 11th G-I Meeting

The 11th G-I Meeting was the second round of the 4th Series of G-I Meetings, whose theme is: “Accession to the 1958/1998 Agreements and improved Asian presence in WP.29.” At the meeting, the participating countries/territories expressed a wide range of profound ideas and exchanged opinions on three objectives: (1) realizing the ratification of the 1958/1998 Agreements by Asian countries/territories and increasing the number of ratifying countries/territories; (2) expanding participation in WP.29 and getting out information on the actual state of affairs in Asia; and (3) strengthening solidarity among Asian countries/territories with the prospect of effecting a smooth transfer to new G-I Meetings.

With regard to Objective (1), which is to accede to the said U.N. Agreements, the efforts of participating countries have successfully resulted in Malaysia’s accession to the 1958/1998 Agreements, Thailand’s accession to the 1958 Agreement, and India’s accession to the 1998 Agreement, all of which were realized this year. Their accession to the Agreements has greatly strengthened the administrative infrastructure for internationalizing automobile regulations in Asia. Further, at this Meeting, Singapore and the Philippines announced their goal to join the 1958 Agreement in, respectively, 2007 or 2008 and 2008. The attendees then discussed what should be done to accomplish the purpose of acceding to the 1958 Agreement; that is, to carry out reciprocal recognition of type approvals among Contracting Parties using ECE Regulations and to establish a formal vehicle certification system in each country. As the result of the discussion, it was agreed that establishing the vehicle certification system within the framework of ECE Regulations would benefit all the participating countries/territories and that ACCSQ’s plan to build a regional mutual recognition system is in concurrence with the objective of this Meeting. Specifically, further discussions were held on the ideal certification system as well as problems to solve and the course to take to achieve the goal. The chairman recommended that the countries that have acceded to the Agreement start the activities for establishing the vehicle certification system according to the action plan and report the status of these activities at the next G-I Meeting.

As for Objective (2), which is to expand participation in WP.29 and get out information on the actual state of affairs in Asia, the four countries of Japan, China, Republic of Korea, and India have been regularly attending WP.29 meetings, and lately Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia are also attending them more frequently for sure. In addition, in June this year the Philippines attended a WP.29 meeting as an observer for the first time. The 11th G-I Meeting attendees agreed that each country/territory should do its best to participate in WP.29, including GRs, on an ongoing basis for the purposes of training experts and making the actual state of Asian affairs known to the world. Laos and Myanmar, which attended this G-I Meeting, also expressed their intention to consider attending WP.29 meetings in the future in order to deepen their understanding of the 1958 Agreement.

As an effort to achieve Objective (3), which is to strengthen solidarity among Asian countries/territories with the prospect of effecting a smooth transfer to new G-I Meetings, the following three Asia Expert Meetings have been held as the core activity for that objective: The 4th, 5th, and 6th Asia Expert Meetings were held by the Philippines in January, by Hong Kong in June, and by Thailand in October, respectively. These Expert Meetings were voluntarily attended by government and industry representatives from several neighboring countries/territories. At the 11th G-I Meeting, it was acknowledged by all that these moves demonstrate that each hosting country/territory is enthusiastic to hold the Asia Expert Meeting and at the same time the significance of the Expert Meeting has been deeply understood by Asian countries/territories. It was also agreed that Asian countries/territories would collaborate through hosting and/or participating in the Expert Meeting with a view to evolving the Expert Meeting into an “Asian activity.”

Based on the requests from each country/territory, the future Asia Expert Meetings are scheduled as follows:

2007

Philippines:

Type-approval system

Indonesia:

Accession to the 1958 Agreement

Vietnam:

Accession to the 1958 Agreement

Malaysia:

Glazing

Indonesia:

Vehicle external noise (motorcycles and four-wheeled vehicles)

India:

Administrative problems related to accession to the 1958 Agreement

2008 and later

India:

Steering impact, interior projections

Thailand:

Motorcycle safety

Malaysia:

Safety belts, seats, safety belt anchorages, head restraints

Malaysia:

Tires

Brunei:

To be held in 2009; the theme to be determined in the future

Myanmar:

To be held in 2008 or 2009; the theme to be determined in the future

To conclude this G-I Meeting, the course to take in harmonizing regulations through the future G-I Meetings was confirmed and the countries/territories scheduled to host the G-I Meeting in the next three years were listed in the wrap-up document.

3. Schedule of the Next Government-Industry Meeting

It was agreed that the next 12th Government-Industry Meeting would be co-organized by the Philippines’ Department Of Transportation & Communications/Land Transportation Office (DOTC/LTO) and JASIC, and held according to the following schedule.

Time: 27-29 November 2007
Location: Philippines
Co-organizers: Philippines’ DOTC/LTO and JASIC

Photo of gathering of representative participants

Opening Ceremony

Panel Discussion

Technical tour