2. Ms. E. Molnar, Director of the Transport Division of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) announced the appointment of Mr. Jean Todt as the special envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for road safety. She informed the World Forum that the UNECE Transport Division would provide secretariat services for the special envoy. She noted that the UNECE secretariat welcomed the positive and proactive strategic development related to the 1998 Agreement as laid down in the Trilateral White Paper submitted by the European Union, Japan and the United States of America. She commended the good news on the revision of the 1958 Agreement, that there could be a possibility of reaching an agreement between Contracting Parties over the course of the year. She noted that Revision 3 of the 1958 Agreement would be an important step forward in providing an introduction for the International Whole Vehicle Type Approval system. She also noted that with the recent establishment of the informal group on PTI; progress could be made soon in developing the 1997 Agreement to provide safe vehicles on our roads during their entire lifetime. She highlighted the importance of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) / Automated Driving (AD) as reflected in the UN regulatory framework as these new technologies would have huge potential in the areas of road safety and environmental protection.

3. WP.29 welcomed the participation for the first time of Egypt and Kazakhstan to the World Forum.