November 28, 2007

Joint Statement

 

12th JASIC Asia Government/Industry Meeting 14 Country/Region Agreement

 

A. The 12th meeting under the 4th series of G/I Meeting was successfully held in Manila from November 27-29, 2007 under the theme “Accession to the 1958/1998 Agreement and increased Asian presence in WP29”, and based on the output of the Government/Industry Meeting 3rd series, the participants focused on the following activities.

1. Accession to the 1958/1998 Agreements by Asian countries

2. Increasing the number of countries participating in WP.29 and communicating the enactment of agreements and rules that reflect the current status of Asia
3. Strengthening ties among Asian countries/territories to ensure smooth transition to the new Government-Industry Meetings

 

On Item 1, the following countries acceded to the 1958Agreement: South Korea (December 2004), Malaysia (April 2006), and Thailand (May 2006) accede the 1958 Agreement. In addition, the following countries expressed their intention to accede: the Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam. India is also actively examining the possibility of acceding to the 1958 Agreement.
All the participating government and industry representatives constructively discussed during this series,the directions the member countries should take. All countries have recognized the importance of building robust automobile type approval systems. In this regard, Japan proposed the mutual recognition of whole vehicle certification to the various countries. The member countries have agreed to keep in close contact and exchange information to work toward mutual recognition of whole vehicle certification.

 

On Item 2, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines participated as observer in WP29 for the first time. China, South Korea, India, Thailand, and Japan have continued to participate in WP29 and contribute to its activities.Singapore expressed that it plans to consider participation in WP29 as an observer in year 2008/2009.
China, South Korea, India, and Japan are also actively participating in GRs. It is hoped that the enthusiasm holds and leads to a unified voice of Asia in WP29.

 

On Item 3, Future Government/Industry Meetings will be used as venues for exchanging WP29 related information between government and industry, and for establishing vehicle regulations and vehicle type approval systems in Asian countries, so expert meetings will be held under the auspices of the Government/Industry Meetings to improve understanding of the 1958 Agreement and the ECE Regulations by the various countries as well as to strengthen the cooperation among Asian countries. Participating members recognized the importance of holding these expert meetings regularly and of fostering an environment for smooth transition of Government/Industry Meetings towards its future role.

 

4th Series Results of Expert Meeting

2005: Indonesia (2nd), Thailand (3rd)

2006: Philippines (4th), Hong Kong (5th), Thailand (6th)

2007: Philippines (7th), Indonesia (8th), Vietnam (9th), India (10th), Indonesia (11th)

 

Country Proposed Plans for Expert Meeting in 2008 and beyond

March 2008 : Indonesia:

Safety Glass

Exhaust gas Emission

Fuel property

2008 : Malaysia:Braking (R13, R13H)

Seats, Safety belts, Safety belt anchorages (R14, R16, 17)

Head restraint (R25)

2008 : Philippines:Noise regulations

GRPE (Emission, Fuel)

GRE

Administration requirement for accession to 1958 Agreement

2008 : Thailand:Motorcycle safety (R53, R78, R113)

Noise regulations

GRPE (Emission, Fuel, OBD)

2009 : Malaysia:R44

2010- :Myammar: Accession to the 1958/1998 Agreement and WP29


B. While progress had been made generally during this 4th series, the participants also recognized that nothing much had been made in the mutual recognition of approvals based on the 1958 Agreement. One reason for this is the yet-to-be established automobile type approval system in the different countries. Thus, the countries agreed to seriously address the issue during the coming 5th series Government/Industry Meetings.

 

Participating members agreed on the following theme for the 5th series.

 

“Strengthening of the Mutual Recognition of a Whole Vehicle Certification infrastructure under the 1958 Agreement”

  • Promoteknowledge on the international whole vehicle certification system infrastructure by Asian countries
  • Developthe vehicle type approval systems in each Asian country
  • Promote application of the ECE regulations necessary for mutual recognition of whole vehicle certification system.
  • Expand the number of Contracting Parties on the 1958 Agreement among the Asian countries
  • Continue Government/Industry Meetings and Expert Meetings in accordance with expectations for internationalization of vehicle type approval.

C. It was decided to hold the next Government/Industry Meeting as follows:

Schedule: 26-28 November, 2008

Location: Thailand

Organized by: Department of Land Transport (DLT), And JASIC

 

Vietnam expects to co-organize the Government/Industry Meeting in 2009.

 

 

 

End


 

Appendix

 

Results of Government/Industry Meetings to Date

Government/Industry Meetings 1st Series (1st to 3rd Government/Industry Meetings)

a. The need for international harmonization of automobile technical standards and mutual recognition system was confirmed.

b. It was confirmed that the optimum forum for promoting automobile safety and environmental protection and for smooth international distribution is the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (UN/ECE/WP29) and that membership in the 1958 and 1998 Agreements is important.

c. Each country will set the policies and action plans that it should pursue and then based on these joint statement will be issued which in turn shall be the basis for each country’s formation and accomplishment of short-term, medium-term, and long-term targets.

 

2. Government/Industry Meetings 2nd Series (4th to 6th Government/Industry Meetings)

a. The 2nd series activities will focus on the short-term targets from the Government/Industry Meetings 1st Series under the theme of “Expanding and promoting observer participation in WP29.”

b. As the first step toward international harmonization of automobile technical standards and mutual recognition of certification, the activities of WP29 and its groups (UN/ECE/WP29/GRs) will be understood and the factors hindering participating in WP29/GRs will be analyzed.

c. Hindrance factors identified were the cost of participation, insufficient technological knowledge, and language problem. To resolve these obstacles, government, industry, and academe will work together to resolve the technological issues and get the upper management layers of organizations to recognize the importance of automobile standard harmonization activities to make it easier to obtain budget.The language problem can be resolved by using the official languages of WP29, so none of these issues are essential problems.

d. Each country will craft an action plan for the course that it should take.A joint statement will be issued, and based on this each country will set short-term, medium-term, and long-term targets it should achieve.

 

 

3. Government/Industry Meetings 3rd Series (7th to 9th Government/Industry Meetings)

a. Based on the results of the Government/Industry Meetings 2nd Series, 3rd series activities will be pursued under the theme “Achieving participation in WP29/GR activities and expanding use of ECE regulations.”

b. As regards to WP29/GR, Malaysia and India recently participated in, while Vietnam and the Philippines seriously studied participating as observers. The number of countries participating in WP29 also increased the understanding of the importance of WP29 activities and confirmed the common recognition that membership in the 1958 Agreement and mutual recognition under the Agreement is headed in the direction of standards harmonization in Asia.

c. On the matter of expanding use of ECE regulations, many countries created action plans based on their needs, and it was clear that much work on standards harmonization activities using ECE regulations will be done going forward along with membership in the 1958 Agreement.

d. In regards to new activities for future Government/Industry Meetings, the results from trial holding of expert meetings in accordance with the needs of the countries, an expert meeting on lights was held in Thailand and served as basis for the structure of future Government/Industry Meetings. Further, on Indonesia’s first year of membership in the 1958 Agreement in 2005, it was announced in 2005 that Thailand would hold a meeting regarding brake standards. Many countries are expected to participate in this expert meeting.

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