By Geoff Draper, GTB President — Special Report to DVN
Previously I have explained my motivation to work on building an industry consensus to seek the support of governments to develop GTRs (Global Technical Regulations) under the UN 1998 Agreement. Since 2011 we have been laying the groundwork to remove barriers to innovation by simplifying and harmonising the existing regulations. Over the past six years much has already been achieved, but we have now reached a stage where a step change is required to develop requirements suitable for global implementation of innovations, instead of perpetuating the current system of parallel UN regulations and other national mandatory standards that are almost impossible to synchronise and which present major barriers for manufacturers.
As this 17th workshop was held in Tokyo, I took the opportunity to organise a regulatory session centred round the opinions of our Asian colleagues from Japan, China, India, and South Korea, and I am grateful for their willingness to participate. The two hour session consisted of:
- An opening speech by Mr. Hiroyuki Inomata, Director of Technical Planning Office, Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). Mr. Inomata also holds very important positions at the UN Global Forum in Geneva as Chair of WP.29-AC3 (the administrative committee for the UN 1998 Agreement) and Chair of the WP.29 Informal Group on ITS/Automated Driving.