TPTWG18/SCCT/6/Rev.1

Progress Report

of Port Experts Group

at the 18^th TPT-WG in Miyazaki, Japan

(final/revision 1)

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October 2000

Japan

BACKGROUND

1. The Group has 6 themes to work in order to improve the capacity and efficiency of the ports in APEC region. 6 themes and Theme Coordinators are as follows;

Theme 1: Port Data Base (Chile),
Theme 2: Regional Port Development Strategy (People¡¦ s Republic of China),
Theme 3: Port Administration, Management and Operation (Thailand),
Theme 4: Environmental Consideration (United States of America),
Theme 5: Technical Standards and Technology Development (Chinese Taipei), and
Theme 6: Natural Disasters and Damage Prevention Measures (Japan).

2. At the 7^th and 8^th meeting, the Group discussed the new themes to be tackled after the above 6 themes based on the suggestion of Australia as follows;

(1).Port Investment
(2).Port and Inter-modal Interface
(3).Electronic Port Manifest
(4).Port Performance Benchmarking

3. The 9^th Group meeting was held at 9:00-17:30 on 16 October 2000 and 09:00-12:30 on 17 October 2000 in Miyazaki, Japan with the participation of port experts from 14 economies as follows; Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, People¡¦ s Republic of China, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Republic of the Philippines, Russian Federation, Republic of Singapore, Thailand, and the United States of America. A guest from ESCAP also attended the meeting. The Group counts 20 participating economies in total so far.

SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIONS AT MIYAZAKI, JAPAN

1. Alternation of the Chair

The alternation of the Chair from Mr. Susumu MURATA to Mr. Susumu NARUSE, Japan, was approved unanimously.

2. Seminar for Earthquake Countermeasures in APEC Ports

It was reported that the Seminar had been successfully held at Kobe with participation of the port experts of three APEC economies, namely Chinese Taipei, Japan and USA, as the speakers. A guest from ESCAP also participated in it.

Moreover, it was also introduced that Dr. Atsushi SHIMOKOBE, the keynote speaker at the Seminar, had made a proposition that APEC should establish its own college or research center for exchanging views and opinions on ports and other transportation infrastructure development of each economy.

3. Report on Theme 6; Natural Disasters and Damage Prevention Measures

Japan presented a final report on the theme and it was accepted.

4. Chair¡¦s Summary Report

Lots of discussion was made on a summary report that has been prepared by the Chair to formulate an integrated report of the 6 themes. It was finalized at the meeting, taking into account the latest trends of the ports at the member economies and the future perspective on the new joint work.

5. Port Database

The role of the webmaster of the APEC Port Database will be transferred from Chile to Japan by the end of 2000. Japan will prepare new operational guidelines for the database and distribute them to the member economies.

6. Themes for the Next Joint Work

(1).Electronic Port Manifest Project

Australia made a report on the progress of the project. Three economies: Hong Kong; Japan; and the USA, made well-prepared presentations on the status quo of Electronic Port Manifest in each economy. A presentation on standardization of data elements and electronic formats on a G-7 basis was also presented at the meeting. Australia will manage this project and member economies are strongly encouraged to fill the questionnaire prepared by Australia, if they have not done that yet. Member economies are also encouraged to advise Australia if they are interested to participate in the project.

(2).Port and Inter-modal Interface

The scope of work was presented by Thailand taking the comments of Australia and Japan into consideration. It was agreed upon at the meeting that Thailand would take responsibility for the project and initiate the work shortly. And the USA offered to assist Thailand.

(3).Environmental Consideration

A theme in this area will be further considered by USA. It may cover the dredging issue that was previously studied or other broader issues in this field. USA will prepare a draft scope of this project, which will be discussed at the next meeting.

As a follow up to the Dredging Needs Survey (Theme 4,) the USA will work with the PEG and its Chair to invite an expert on dredging and environmental mitigation to attend a TPT Working Group in 2001. The invited expert will be asked to present technical information on environmental practices relating to dredging and dredged material disposal.

(4).Action Plan for Realization of Proposed Development Projects

It was agreed upon that Japan would take care of this project and the detailed implementation program of the project would be presented at the next meeting.

PNG proposed that recovery from damage caused by natural disasters should be included in this action plan. An expert on damage recoveries will be invited to make a presentation at the next meeting.

(5).Port Investment

It was concluded that the project would focus on any impediments or incentives to private investment instead of foreign investment, originally proposed, and careful consideration would be needed to implement this project. Japan and the USA will tentatively take care of this project and will carry out preliminary questionnaire surveys to the member economies. It will be further discussed at the next meeting whether the PEG will take up the project as one of the next joint work.

(6).Technical and Safety Issues

No definite conclusions were reached on these issues. Specific themes might be sought by member economies in the future.

It was suggested that the PEG consider a theme of ¡§Mitigation and response measures for natural and technological disasters at ports.¡¨ This project could survey member economies to learn current practices, invite enlightened input from experts and share findings with members. This subject should be considered at the next PEG meeting.

(7).Port Performance Benchmarking

It had been once suggested and withdrawn at the last meeting. However, member economies are encouraged to make a presentation on operational performance of the ports at each economy at the next meeting. It was proposed that port performance benchmarking would be incorporated into the presentation and the group would consider further steps for future possible work on port performance benchmarking.

OTHER BUSINESS MATTERS

1. The following presentations were made at the request of the Chair, and were found to be very helpful to member economies.

• The East-by-West Corridor Development by Russia
• Disaster Countermeasures (Tsunami) by PNG
• ESCAP Activities by an invited guest from ESCAP

2. Participation from ESCAP was very helpful to the meeting. ESCAP participation should be encouraged not only at the PEG but also other expert meetings.

3. Members were advised of a new project concept involving the development of a generic port community website, which was discussed at the Electronic Commerce Group meeting. Members were invited to provide comments on the new project concept in the Australian document TPTWG18/SCCT/EC/2 by the end of November 2000.