2. In his opening statement, the Director of the Sustainable Transport Division, Mr. Y. Li, informed WP.29 on the promotion of Mr E. Gianotti to the vacant P4 position of the GRSG Secretary. Following this promotion, the P3 position of the GRSP Secretary became vacant. He informed WP.29 participants that the recruitment process had recently been initiated and that a related job-opening was expected to be published soon. He recalled the Secretary-General’s gender strategy and the Executive Secretary’s commitment that aimed at equal distribution of gender and geographical representation at staff of the secretariat, which is not the case for the Division yet. He requested WP.29 delegates to help spreading information on the job-opining to potential candidates and encourage eligible females to apply for the post. He also informed delegates that the Secretary of WP.29 would e-mail the job-opening and the request to help encourage females’ applications.

3. The director introduced new staff members, Ms M. Archer (P2) and Ms L Mueller (JPO), who recently joined the WP.29 secretariat team. In this respect he thanked Germany for funding of the Junior Professional Officer (JPO) position.

4. He underlined the paramount role of the Vehicle Regulations and Transport Innovations section with regard to its contribution to improve road safety and to address climate change, two main priorities of the Inland Transport Committee Strategy. He underlined that with the recent reinforcement of the section, the section would now be better in the position to address these challenges.

5. The Chair of WP.29, Mr. A. Erario (Italy) thanked the Division Director for his intervention and expressed his desire to return to full in-person meetings during next year.