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Transportation Working Group

  

The Transportation Working Group (TPTWG) aims to achieve liberalization of transportation services and works to enhance the safety of APEC Transport Systems in order to encourage economic development in the Asia-Pacific region. The TPTWG works to achieve a balance between trade and security issues related to regional transport systems operations. The Group's efforts are focused on facilitation of domestic policy regulations, development of intermodal supply chain and secure transport activity, including building the capacity of all stakeholders to help them reach the eventual goal of free and open trade and investment in the APEC region. At the same time, parallel measures are being undertaken by economies to strengthen security in all transportation modes, namely land, sea and air transport.

The TPTWG has a clearly defined set of priority action areas, based on the 2006 Leaders' and 2007 Transport Ministers statements, as well as the TPT strategic direction paper.

At the 5th APEC Transportation Ministerial Meeting in March 2007, which was held in Adelaide, South Australia, Ministers adopted a Joint Ministerial Statement, summarizing the outcomes and giving direction to economies and the APEC Transportation Working Group for future work. In particular, Ministers agreed to:
  • Aggressive road safety strategies tailored to the special circumstance of each economy;
  • Prioritize the harmonization of security measures noting that differences in security processes across the region had implications for both passengers and industry;
  • Work together to help developing economies comply with global security requirements such as the maritime ISPS Code.
The Ministers further recognized that there was no equivalent to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) or the International Maritime Organization in relation to mass transit transport and agreed to work together on mass transit security measures. Ministers also made a commitment to develop timetables and strategies to work towards the liberalization of air services; acknowledged the importance of an efficient supply chain and that there would be continuing challenges to balance security, safety and environmental requirements with trade facilitation. They also agreed to work together on a balanced package of options for addressing greenhouse emissions from aviation.

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Achievements

Considerable progress has been made on the U.S. initiative on data collection of road accident and evaluation capabilities in developing economies and producing outcomes to support funding justification for road safety improvement programs. The initiative was piloted in Thailand with subsequent application in Indonesia, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Malaysia and Peru.

A series of workshops have been held under the ISPS Code Implementation Assistance Program involving port security plans, access controls and Code compliance, in the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Viet Nam, Peru, Papua New Guinea and Malaysia. Phase Two workshops involving drills and exercises, audits and 'train-the-trainers' initiatives will be conducted in those economies in the coming year. Relevant standards and procedures for practical implementation have also been established including Guidelines and a Procedures Manual for the ICIAP. A Catalogue of available Maritime Security Training, Capacity Building and Technical Outreach initiatives was developed and a Maritime Security Point of Contact Network established to identify subject matter experts for capacity building needs.

The Aviation Security sub-group continues to share expertise and experience in the application of screening passengers, baggage and cargo to mitigate security risk and it completed the development of a training capacity database to enhance security personnel training.

A five-economy taskforce developed an inventory of economy arrangements on the secure transport of dangerous goods which identifies the international codes and agreements pertaining to Dangerous Goods, and current arrangements in each APEC economy relating to these requirements. Economies are collaborating through relevant Experts' Groups to share information on the transport of dangerous goods; to implement transport security plans across modes; and to address any gaps in the regulatory systems between modes.

The Group has successfully completed the Mutual Recognition of Transport Professionals project and the work related to Intermodal Skills Development. Workshops on the improvement of intermodal management skills have been conducted in Indonesia and the Philippines with further plans for the model to be used in other developing economies.

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Current Activities

The Land Transport Experts' Group is taking steps to assist in capacity building to support efforts of economies in harmonising regulations and developing certification and regulatory systems.

The Experts' Group continues to promote and facilitate Electronic Commerce and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and has successfully implemented the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Test Bed. Major progress has been made on the establishment of international ITS standards and the Group is developing a World ITS Standards Report to identify and address the gaps. The Group has initiated the evaluation phase of the Secure Trade Evaluation project, which will provide information on the costs and benefits of utilising ITS and e-commerce technologies for securing trade and increasing efficiency in the APEC region.

The Group has undertaken a Roadmap Analysis to identify the remaining work required for achieving the Bogor Goals of trade and investment liberalisation and facilitation as well as economic and technical cooperation in all modes of transport.

Roadmap Phase One (Industry Report) and Phase Two (Economies Report) have identified progress to date and the remaining barriers to the Bogor Goals; emerging trends in the transport sector; and suggested initiatives that might further progress work towards trade liberalisation and facilitation.

The TPT-WG also commissioned a study on the progress of Liberalisation of Air Services in the APEC Region 1995-2005 undertaken by the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (November 2006). The study will facilitate APEC economies to consider practical ways to monitor progress and advance liberalisation of air services, taking into account their own priorities and level of development.
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Transportation Working Group (TPTWG) - Key Contacts
Lead Shepherd
Mr John Doherty
Executive Director
Aviation & Airports Policy Division
Department of Transport and Regional Services
111 Alinga Street
CANBERRA ACT 2600
GPO Box 594
AUSTRALIA
Tel: (61 2) 6274 7086
Fax: (61 2) 6274 7804
email: john.doherty@dotars.gov.au

APEC Secretariat
Mr. Alexander L Sukhov
Director (Program)
E-mail: als@apec.org