Summary Report of the 9th Asia Government-Industry Meeting

1. Profile of the 9th G/I Meeting
	With the support of Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT), the 9th G/I Meeting was co-organized by Thailand's Department of Land Transport (DLT) and JASIC and convened in Bangkok, Thailand from December 1 to 3, 2004. The participants, including observers, were comprised of some 170 representatives from the governments or organizations such as automobile manufacturers' associations of the following 17 countries/territories, who are involved in the areas of transport, environment and regulations:
	14 Asian territories:	Brunei, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Japan
	3 observer countries:	South Africa, Australia, France.
	On December 3, the participants took a technical tour of the plant at Saint-Gobain Sekurit (Thailand) Co., LTD., a Thai glazing manufacturer.
2. Results of the 9th G/I Meeting
	As the final meeting of the Third Series focusing on the adoption of ECE Regulations and realization of WP29 participation, the 9th Meeting was expected to be of great significance. Therefore, Mr. Gauvin, WP29 Vice-chairman, was invited to the Meeting and discussions with him were held at different sessions on various issues pertaining to the 1958 Agreement. As a result, after analyzing the issues faced by each country/territory in making efforts toward the accession to the Agreement and discussing the ways to tackle the possible problems, the participating countries/territories agreed that there were no fundamental obstacles blocking their accession to the Agreement. In addition, a panel discussion was held to discuss the desirable future course of the G/I Meetings, with the conclusion that the Fourth Series of the G/I Meetings would be launched in 2005 to actively promote the accession to the 1958 Agreement, WP29 participation, and expert meetings to be voluntarily conducted by each country/territory. Finally, new short-, intermediate- and long-term targets were set and each country/territory confirmed its intention to work hard toward reaching these goals. Also, reports were made by Korea and Vietnam during the Meeting respectively on Korea's voluntary accession to the 1958 Agreement in October 2004 and Vietnam's first participation in WP29 in November 2004. At the conclusion of the Meeting, the direction to take in continuing regulation harmonization activities at the future G/I Meetings was agreed on and a Joint Statement was issued accordingly.
3. Schedule of the Next G/I Meeting
	The next (10th) G/I Meeting was decided to be co-organized by Malaysia's Road Transport Department (JPJ) and JASIC as follows:
	Scheduled date: 3 days in November and/or December of 2005 Scheduled host country: Malaysia.