On 2 July 2008, the 13th JASIC Asia Expert Meeting, organized by Indonesian Ministry of Industry, was held at its conference room in Jakarta, Indonesia to discuss the safety glazing regulation (ECE R43).

The Meeting was attended by about 70 people from Indonesia, including Dr. Budi Darmadi, Director General for Transport Equipment and Information Technology of the Ministry of Industry, as well as representatives of the Ministry of Industry, Ministry of Transportation, Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers, and Indonesia Glass Manufacturers Association. JASIC sent a total of five participants to the Meeting, who were experts from Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and the Flat Glass Manufacturers Association of Japan and staff from JASIC’s Secretariat, to discuss with other participants and give presentation.

At the opening of the Meeting, Dr. Budi Darmadi introduced the Indonesian government’s plan to accede to the 1958 Agreement and adopt ECE Regulations and expressed his hope that this Meeting would help them effectively implement the plans.

This was followed by the keynote speech given by JASIC, where we explained how the ECE Regulations are created and what JASIC has been doing to help the Japanese government adopt those ECE Regulations. We also described the differences between the 1958 Agreement and the 1998 Agreement and stated our expectation that the Indonesian government would join the 1958 Agreement in the near future.

Then, the experts from JASIC gave detailed explanations on the R43 requirements for installing glazing on vehicles as well as those on the performance of Safety glazing.

Finally, the Indonesia Glass Manufacturers Association made a presentation on the comparison between R43 and Indonesia’s national regulation and the current status of their preparatory work for introducing R43 into their national regulation.

A wide range of questions were raised at the Meeting, including those related to the 1958 Agreement: its merits, its differences from the 1998 Agreement, designation of a Technical Service, general issues about WP.29 meetings, etc. In addition, more technical questions were also asked, such as those about provisions on the product sampling test and the methodology for setting measurement points as test conditions. This question and answer session contributed to the fruitful discussion at the Meeting.

We would like to express our gratitude and respect to the related people of Indonesian Ministry of Industry for their tremendous effort to host this Meeting, and our appreciation to those who attended or helped this Meeting.