2. The Chair of the World Forum welcomed Singapore, which was participating in WP.29 for the first time as an observer.

3. In her opening statement, the Director of the Sustainable Transport Division informed WP.29 about the cut of a G-Post which directly affects the vehicle regulations section. The Division’s management is working on a temporary arrangement until additional resources arrive. To this end and as requested by the Inland Transport Committee (ITC) a strategy paper will be prepared for the next ITC session that will include issues about financing the secretariat’s activities. She further highlighted that the next year’s ITC will be the seventieth anniversary of ITC. As the big challenges ahead, she recalled the important role of safe vehicles to achieve the road safety target, the Revision 3 of the 1958 Agreement, the increased accession to all of the three agreements serviced by WP.29 and to facilitate their implementation. For the latter, important elements are the up-coming GA resolution on road safety where member States are invited to support the request for accession to and implementation of the three United Nations vehicle agreements. Finally, the Director referred to the options paper for the establishment of a United Nations Road Safety Fund (WP.29-168-14) .

4. The Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety, Mr. Jean Todt highlighted in his key note, the importance of the work done at WP.29 for road safety. He highlighted the huge discrepancy between low and middle income countries and high income countries when it comes to the share of road traffic fatalities and registered vehicles. Mr. Todt emphasised the need to encourage vehicle manufacturers to commit to better vehicle safety standards especially for developing and emerging countries. He also stressed the problem of the often very old vehicle fleets in several countries. He further announced the promotion of a set of most critical vehicle regulations for the benefit of road safety when meeting with government officials. Finally Mr. Todt highlighted the four main priorities of his mandate as Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Road Safety to (i) support global partnership to improve road safety, with a particular focus on funding, (ii) advocate with governments, civil society and the private sector to promote road safety, (iii) participate in global and regional conferences and meetings on road safety and (iv) advocate the accession to, and more effective implementation of, United Nations road safety legal instruments

5. Mr. A. Morozov, Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, informed WP.29 that, in spite of a steep decline of the Russian automotive market in 2015, his country continued to pay great attention to vehicle safety and the reduction of polluting emissions. He recalled the Russian Federation’s contributions and support to the revision of the 1958 Agreement and development of the IWVTA system. He added that, as of 1 January 2015, the member States of the Customs Union (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and the Russian Federation) had introduced a uniform Technical Regulation on Safety of Wheeled Vehicles which is based on the direct application of UN Regulations, UN GTRs and Rules – 112 documents in total. He announced that the Accident Emergency Call Systems (AECS) became mandatory under this Regulation and that a decision on the entry into force of Euro-6 emission levels would be taken in the course of 2016. He also recalled the topics which were successfully sponsored by his country and reported on the future contributions to the WP.29 activities related to air pollution from tyre and brake wear as well as the vehicle indoor air quality. Finally, he reaffirmed the commitment of the Russian Federation to the three Agreements under the auspices of WP.29 and appreciated the results achieved by WP.29 (WP.29-168-18).