Outline of the 31st VSHG Meeting

At the outset of the meeting, each participating economy reported on the status of standard harmonization.

Then, to provide reference information for the “vehicle certification benchmarking study” scheduled to be conducted within the VSHG, JASIC made a presentation on the factors to be examined to develop the foundation for the whole vehicle certification system and introduced its contributions to WP.29, such as hosting informal meetings and acting as chair.

Also, MLIT introduced the procedures of attendance preparation through JASIC, studying the issues concerning new and amended regulations, preparing proposals, etc., which they need to know to be involved in the activities of WP.29 and GR, to the participating economies.

In addition, Australia explained the details of the 1958 Agreement and the 1998 Agreement as well as the effort to bring transparency to the worst case selection based on the RVCS certification system and advise circulars, while Korea discussed on the studies of the HFCV safety standard and the requirements of seat belt anchorage applicable to school buses.

The meeting ended with a conclusion that it is important to establish a relationship for technical cooperation among the participating economies of APEC concerning the amendment of regulations at WP.29.

It is regrettable that few ASEAN countries attended this meeting although the presentations at this meeting contained much information beneficial for the countries wishing to join and become an active member of the 1958 agreement. Since many ASEAN countries are expected to attend the next meeting in Singapore, we would like to continue delivering such beneficial information.