15^th Transportation Working Group Meeting
Santiago, April 19-23, 1999

 Agenda Item 5
TPT/WG/15/PLEN/

held on April 21, 1999

U.S.A.

I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Participating economies

1. The Transportation Working Group (TPT-WG) Steering Committee on Safe and Environment-Friendly Transportation Systems (SCSE) held its third meeting on April 21, 1999, during the 15th meeting of the TPT-WG in Santiago, Chile. The Steering Committee was chaired by the United States, the coordinator of the Steering Committee, and 15 Economies participated in the deliberations of the Steering Committee including Australia, Brunei, Canada, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei, Thailand and the United States.

Management Issues

2. The chair began by reminding the project leads of the various experts groups/projects which fall under the direction of the Steering Committee of the agreement reached during the 14^th TPT meeting to submit intercessional reports by Friday, January 16^th. She thanked those project leads who had submitted intercessional reports, and agreement was reached that no intercessional reports would be needed in view of the progress and evaluation reports that would be submitted for review of the APEC Budget and Management Committee (BMC) for its July 1999 meeting. The Steering Committee agreed that to the extent possible, it would rely on these reports to prepare for the 16^th TPT-WG to be held in Hong Kong, China on November 8-12, 1999.

3. Though this issue would be dealt with more generally for all TPT-WG project proposals to be forwarded for approval and year 2000 funding by the BMC, the chair also indicated that final funding proposals for those projects agreed upon by the Steering Committee and approved by the TPT would need to be submitted to the Steering Committee Coordinator in advance of the July BMC meeting.

4. A number of other management issues were discussed. It was agreed that there was a need for better coordination among the TPT Steering Committees and that improved guidance to subgroups, particularly on crosscutting issues, was needed. A suggestion was made that a brief plenary session at the start of each TPT meeting was needed to provide agendas of all subgroup and experts groups, highlight areas of overlap, and recommend coordination of overlapping issues. The Chair recalled that the terms of reference establishing the three TPT Steering Committees indicated that Steering Committee Coordinators would meet at least once annually to coordinate the full range of TPT projects.

5. Finally, the Steering Committee members discussed the issue of seminars and whether seminars were needed at every TPT meeting. It was noted that seminars had an impact on the time available for subgroups and experts groups to meet, and suggestions were made regarding possible restructuring of TPT meetings, including having half-day technical tours on the last weekday of each TPT meeting, or moving technical tours to Saturday.

Projects completed since last TPT-WG meeting

6. Since the last meeting of the Steering Committee, no projects have been completed.

II. ONGOING PROJECTS – NEXT STEPS

Intelligent Transportation Systems (Australia)

7. The Lead Economy of the ITS Special Interest Group (SIG), Australia, reported that the IST SIG had had a very productive meeting, with 12 economies in attendance at the meeting. Substantive items discussed included chairing of the group, the status of the Ministers responses to the draft report on a framework of standards for ITS systems, the development of a publication strategy for the report to Ministers, and proposals for the work program for the proposed APEC ITS Group. Regarding chairing of the ITS SIG, it was reported that Australia has resigned the Chair as of this meeting and that Canada has indicated interest in chairing. On the report on ITS standards, Ministerial responses had been received from seven Ministers, and the deadline for responses had been extended to June 30, 1999. The final report will be circulated again to Ministers following that date, and will be posted on the TPT website.

Recommendations to Plenary:

8. The Steering Committee reviewed and endorsed the report and recommendations of the ITS SIG (TPT/15/SC/SE/3.1/Rev1), and the Steering Committee recommends that the Plenary agree to the recommendations made, including that the ITS SIG meet in the future as the APEC ITS Group and that it begin operating in line with the recommendations contained in the report currently before Transport Ministers.

Maritime Safety (Canada)

9. The Steering Committee reviewed and approved the report and recommendations of the Experts Group on Maritime Safety (EGMS) (TPT/15/SC/SE/3.2).

10. The EGMS reported on a number of ongoing maritime-related projects, including the report on Regional Oil Spills Preparedness and Response Arrangements and the update on the "Safer Shipping in the Asia Pacific Region" project. Two new project proposals on Safer Shipping submitted by Korea and Australia respectively – both of which had received the unanimous support of the EGMS – were also discussed by the Steering Committee during its consideration of new project proposals.

Regional Oil Spills Preparedness and Response Arrangements (Philippines)

11. Regarding the report on Regional Oil Spills Preparedness, now posted on the TPT website, economies were encouraged to continue to update the report.

Recommendations to Plenary:

12. The Steering Committee supports the EGMS recommendation that economies continue to provide updated information to the existing report while consideration is given to further work that might be needed.

Safer Shipping (Australia)

13. It was reported that a Request for Proposal (RFP) on the Safer Shipping project, approved and funded at the 13^th TPT, had been circulated. Four tenders had been submitted in response, and the contract had been awarded to the Asia Pacific Maritime Institute based in Launceston, Australia. Work is expected to commence in April 1999 and a draft report is expected to be submitted to TPT WG 16.

Consultative Forum of Classification Societies and Maritime Administrations (Indonesia)

14. As Indonesia was not present to report on the status of this project, the Steering Committee conducted a brief, general discussion in regard to the project. The chair noted that, at TPT-WG13, the Steering Committee had agreed that final review of this project should begin at the conclusion of Phase 1 of the Safer Shipping project being conducted by Australia under the oversight of the Experts Group on Maritime Safety (EGMS).

Recommendations to Plenary:

15. The Steering Committee recommends that this project be removed from the Committee磗 agenda until the conclusion of Phase 1of the Safer Shipping project, or until such time as further information and/or a new proposal is submitted to the EGMS or the Steering Committee.

Road Transport Safety (Chinese Taipei)

16. The Steering Committee reviewed and approved the progress report of the Road Safety Expert Group (TPT/15/SC/SE/3.3). The Steering Committee noted that replies to the initial road safety questionnaire had been submitted and that a final report analyzing the results of that survey had been finalized. The Steering Committee also noted that the second questionnaire, focusing on twelve major road transportation safety problems, had been circulated to economies with responses expected by August 15^th. The Lead Economy, Chinese Taipei, indicated that it would collate responses, and prepare an initial analysis and proposals on next steps for consideration at the 16^th TPT WG. Drafts will be circulated to member economies intercessionally, and the final questionnaire will be discussed in Chile. The Road Safety Expert Group also noted that the World Bank had launched a Global Road Safety Partnership, focusing on road-related deaths and injuries, and recommended that World Bank and Asian Development Bank officials be invited to make a presentation to the Road Safety Experts Group at the 16^th TPT WG.

Recommendatons to Plenary:

17. The Steering Committee recommends that as much analysis be done as possible prior to the 16^th TPT WG based on economies’ responses to the second road safety questionnaire, and propose next steps in improving road safety in the region. The Steering Committee also supports the Road Safety Experts Group recommendation, subject to further consultations by TPT economies, that World Bank and Asian Development Bank officials be invited to make presentations to the group at the 16^th TPT WG meeting regarding their road safety activities, particularly the Global Road Safety Partnership.

Urban Transport Forum (Korea)

18. The Steering Committee reviewed and took note of the progress report (TPT/15/SC/SE/3.4) on the development of a Best Practices Manual to address urban transport problems in the APEC region. Korea noted that the project consultant, the Korea Transport Institute or KOTI, had been unable to prepare an adequate report in view of the small number of responses received from APEC economies to the questionnaire circulated on urban transport problems. In response to the request for a one-year extension and another request that economies provide more detailed information, the Steering Committee suggested that other approaches to the best practices manual be explored. These approaches included: focusing on specific APEC economy cities, particularly megacities; dividing the report to examine specific urban transport issues; and identifying innovative schemes implemented in various APEC economies.

Recommendations to Plenary:

19. The Steering Committee recommends that the completion date for the Urban Transport best practices manual be extended for one year (until March 2000) and that the contractor take into account the suggestions made by the Steering Committee to narrow the approach to the manual.

Satellite Navigation and Communications (SN&C) Systems Advisory Committee (United States)

20. The SN&C Advisory Committee did not meet during the TPT WG 15. The United States, as Chair of the Advisory Committee, gave reports on two intercessional activities of interest to the Steering Committee: the upcoming "Forum on Intermodalism and Satellite-based Transportation Systems" (TPT/WG/15/SC/SE/3.5) and the draft "Statement of the APEC Transportation Ministers on the Protection of the Global Navigation Satellite System Spectrum for all Modes of Transportation" (TPT/WG/15/SC/SE/3.6a and 3.6b).

Forum on Intermodalism and Satellite-based Transportation Systems

21. The United States noted, as indicated at past TPT WG meetings, that the Forum will be co-hosted by the SN&C Advisory Committee and the Intermodal Task Force and will be held intercessionally, May 5-7, 1999, in Singapore. The Steering Committee thanked all economies for their contributions to the development of this Forum, in particular the United States, Singapore, and Canada.

Recommendations to Plenary:

22. The Steering Committee recommends the Forum to all TPT economies and

encourages all economies to attend.

Spectrum Band Issue/Ministerial Statement (United States)

23. The Steering Committee endorsed the draft "Statement of the APEC Transportation Ministers on the Protection of the Global Navigation Satellite System Spectrum for all Modes of Transportation" and recommends that the statement be endorsed by all economies. Once endorsed, the Steering Committee agreed that the United States will execute the following in order to obtain final endorsement of the statement by Ministers: 1) the United States Secretary of Transportation will send his peers (with copies to Heads of Delegation and the members of the Advisory Committee) a letter along with the statement requesting their final endorsement and/or recommendations for changes. Economies will be given two months to respond to the United States. If no comments are received from an economy by the requested response date indicated in the letter, the United States will assume that the economy has endorsed the statement; 2) if changes are suggested by economies, the United States will rationalize those changes intercessionally and provide all economies with a revised statement for subsequent endorsement; 3) once all economies have endorsed the statement, the United States Secretary of Transportation will send the ministerial statement to the International Telecommunications Union for its consideration in preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2000.

24. The Steering Committee agreed that all TPT Heads of Delegation should expedite the endorsement/comment period within their own economies as all economies have had three previous opportunities to comment on the draft. The Steering Committee also agreed to proceed in the following manner if all economies have not endorsed the statement by September 1, 1999: 1) the statement be revised by substituting the words "APEC Transportation Ministers" with "APEC Transportation Working Group"; 2) the Lead Shepherd of the TPT WG send a letter with the statement attached to the International Telecommunications Union for its consideration in preparation for the World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC) 2000.

Recommendations to Plenary:

25. The Steering Committee recommends that the plenary agree to the process outlined above for the final endorsement by Ministers of the statement.

Aviation Safety

26. The Steering Committee reviewed the interim report on the Follow-on Survey Regarding Recommendations of the APEC TPT WG Group of Experts on Aviation Safety and Assistance (TPT/WG/15/SC/SE/3.7).

Recommendations to Plenary:

27. The Steering Committee recommends that: economies be encouraged to update their survey submissions; that the three new APEC economies be requested to complete surveys. The Steering Committee also recommends, if it would be advantageous, that the TPT hold an aviation safety seminar at the 16^th TPT WG to address a number of aviation safety recommendations that have been endorsed by the APEC Transportation Ministers. Upon completion of these activities, a report will be prepared for consideration by APEC Transportation Ministers at the next Ministerial meeting.

Y2K Readiness in the Transport Sector

28. Japan provided a detailed report (TPT/WG/15/SC/SC/3.8) on the "Y2K Conversion Situation in the Transport Sector", and the United States indicated that it has done much to ensure Y2K readiness in all segments of the transport sector. The Steering Committee agreed that this item would be left on the agenda for further discussion at the 16^th TPT WG.

III. APPROVAL OF NEW PROJECTS

29. The Steering Committee considered two proposals for year 2000 funding from the APEC Operational Account: one project, led by Korea, "To identify optimum maritime administrative structure and legal framework in the APEC region" (TPT/WG/15/SC/SE/3.2b and 4.1) and a second project, led by Australia, for an "International Symposium on Safer Shipping in the APEC region" to be held in early 2001 (TPT/WG/SC/SE/4.2). After extensive discussion, the Steering Committee agreed that the scope of the Korean-led project would be expanded to include specific deliverables and recommendations, but that the timeframe for the project would be extended from one year to eighteen months and the amount to be funded would be adjusted to reflect these changes. The Steering Committee also endorsed the proposal to hold the International Symposium on Safer Shipping in early 2001, urging that it be structured to take account of ongoing projects on safer shipping.

Recommendations to Plenary:

30. The Steering Committee recommends that the two projects proposals be funded as requested, with priority given as needed or appropriate to the Korean-led project , "To identify optimum maritime administrative structure and legal framework in the APEC region."

4. MANAGEMENT ISSUES

31. The Steering Committee brings to the attention of the plenary the various management issues raised in paragraphs two through five above, and recommends that appropriate action be taken to address those issues, particularly the need for improved coordination among the TPT steering committee coordinators and for more careful consideration of the structure of TPT meetings.

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