D-8 3rd WG DGCA Concluded Successfully in Bali; Resulting Concrete Cooperation Programs and Projects

Bali, Indonesia | June 22, 2008 by D-8 Secretariat

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation of the Republic of Indonesia hosted the Third D-8 Working Group on Civil Aviation and Director Generals’ Meeting in Bali, Indonesia, on 17-18 June 2008. The Meeting was attended by various figures representing related authorities from memberstates, and the Secretary-General of D-8, Dr. Dipo Alam.

The Meeting was officially opened by the Minister of Transportation of the Republic of Indonesia, Mr. Jusman Syafii Djamal. In his Opening Remarks, Mr. Jusman acknowledged that it was imperative for D-8 to strengthen cooperation in the field of Civil Aviation as it would help to increase the economic and social conditions of the D-8 people. He also stated that D-8 cooperation in this field was in line with the Government of Indonesia’s strong commitment to enhance the safety, security and services of the civil aviation in order to meet the requirement set by the International standard. “We expect that this Meeting would facilitate major improvements in the cooperation of aviation industry amongst D-8 countries that would be a path to achieve regional cooperation and harmonized development of civil aviation industry,” he said in his speech.

Representing the Director General of Civil Aviation of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr. Budhi M. Suyitno, in his welcoming remarks underlined that this Meeting was essential to identify the potencies and challenges of Civil Aviation sectors amongst D-8 countries and the possibility of developing cooperation with private sectors. He viewed that there were at least three fields of cooperation in aviation industry to be developed amongst D-8 Countries, i.e., air navigation systems; aircraft maintenance; and airport infrastructure. “In addition to that, we at the Indonesian DGCA also had already formulated a Strategic Plan on Civil Aviation we called “Roadmap to Safety”, covering three main elements, namely safety, services and compliance, which would be implemented simultaneously and continuously,” he highlited.

In the meeting was also present the Chairman of the D-8 Working Group on Civil Aviation, Dr. Ali Ariduru. Higlighting the significance of the meeting, he said that “This meeting is a forum to exchange views and best practices in Civil Aviation among our memberstates, and I believe that it is in line with the objective of the D-8 Cooperation, i.e., to increase economic and trade of the D-8 people.”

The D-8 Secretary General, in his remarks, briefed the Meeting on the progress of D-8 Cooperation since it was first founded in 1997. He viewed that D-8 has opportunities to develop and reached the target of 15-20 % intra trade amongst the D-8 in the next ten years as D-8 countries are gifted with abundant resources. “I really hoped that this kind of Working Group in Civil Aviation could be followed by that of Sea transportation and would support the cooperation in the fields of tourism and other sectors,” he said. He also expected that this Meeting would result in a recommendation that would be proposed in the next Sixth Summit in Malaysia on July 2008.

After extensive discussions and exchange of views, agreed on a number of recommendations such as to activate the Task Forces as a follow up of  the Article 5 of the ToR of D-8 Working Group on Civil Aviation on the following areas; (1) Task Force on Safety and Security; (2) Task Force on Rulemaking Activities and Legal Issues; (3) Task Force on Commercial Issues (Maintenance, Airport and terminal infrastructure, ground handling, leasing, and other issues).

Also was recommended, to urge Member Countries that have competitive advantage in civil aviation activities to share their experiences and best practices with other member countries in needs through capacity building programmes, besides also encouraging the active participation of private sectors from other D-8 countries in the international civil aviation activities in line with their national interest. As the first move, the private sectors of Indonesia and Turkey had met and agreed to initiate cooperation in the areas of airport infrastructure and operations. This activity is open for other member countries.

Finally, the meeting also urged member countries that have not signed the “Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Establishment of D-8 Member Countries’ Working Group for Cooperation in Civil Aviation” to do so in order to expedite the implementation of the said MoU.

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