COOPERATION IN TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATIONS (COTAC)

Efforts were continued to further strengthen ASEAN cooperation in the field of transportation and communications, with mixed outcome. While notable progress was made in the areas of sea and air transportation as well as telecommunications, the same was not true in the area of land transportation. The relatively slow delivery of projects and related activities in the sector was attributed to both internal and external factors. Internally, it was the preoccupation of officials with their respective national responsibilities allowing little time spent for regional activities, coupled with the proliferation of ASEAN meetings, lack of coordination and planning leadership, lack of continuous reporting of activities, national legislative constraints and various other factors. Externally, since most ASEAN projects depended heavily on foreign funding especially from dialogue partners, the severe financial constraints and the changing priorities of the dialogue partners had severely affected the implementation of many projects in this sector. Outlined hereunder is the progress in the implementation of ASEAN cooperation in the transportation and communications sector during 1989-1990.
Ports and Shipping
There was practically no new development in the implementation of COTAC's new initiatives in Shipping apart from that reported in the previous year. A Singapore-based company had indicated interest to provide a Brokers Telegraph System type of service. The establishment of an InterASEAN Bulk Pool System suffered from insufficient cargo that prompted the ASEAN Shipowners to request commitment from Shippers Council for sufficient base load to ensure their viable operations. The Government of the Philippines had initiated a Point-to-Point Shipping Services between the Philippines and Brunei Darussalam and call for the private sector to initiate a similar service was in vain, All member countries however, have established their Freight Booking and Cargo Consolidation Centres except Thailand which is in the process of establishing one.
Various issues emerged and were sufficiently deliberated in this sub-sector. These included the introduction of Non-ISO containers, piracy on ASEAN waters, and financing of future ship re placement. ASEAN has noted that although the introduction of enlarged containers was necessitated from the technological advancement in the transport sector to cater for modern needs of transportation and to enhance trade competitiveness, the proposed introduction of Non-ISO Standards for Containers by the International Standard Organisation would impose major difficulties to developing countries, including ASEAN, especially the heavy financial resources required to redesign and redevelop port and railway infrastructures and the associated facilities.
Piracy has become a serious problem in ASEAN waters and without proper coordinated surveillance by the concerned authorities, it would greatly affect commercial shipping. However, as this issue was not under the purview of any ASEAN Committees, the issue was left to the authorities concerned in the respective ASEAN member countries. Meanwhile, member countries would enhance vigilance on board ship to reduce the risk of piracy.
Financing for future ship replacement has emerged as a serious problem to ASEAN shipowners. A total of US$ 2 billion is required to purchase new ships to replace the existing mostly old ships which have been used beyond their life expectancy. In view of the heavy investment involved, efforts would be undertaken to seek favourable funding in this endeavour.
Another development in cooperative efforts in ports and shipping was the need to review the Agreement For the Facilitation of Search of Ships in Distress and Rescue of Survivors of Ships Accidents, signed in 1975. The review was necessary with the aim to formulate a new agreement taking into consideration new developments in the international maritime conventions as well as to include Brunei Darussalam as a party to the Agreement.
Civil Aviation and Related Services
Some progress was made in the implementation of COTAC's new initiative in this sub-sector. Notable among this was the decision of ASEAN Airlines to convene the Annual Meeting of their Chief Executives and Senior Executives on rotational basis. With this development, matters related to air travel and cooperation among Airlines will be delegated to this Annual Meeting. These included Sharing of Airlines Facilities, ASEAN transportation network especially with regard to fuel purchase and aircraft parts, ASEAN Airline Cargo Cooperation an Development of an Operators' Consortium Among ASEAN Airlines, Reports of this Meeting will be relayed to the Sub-Committee on Civil Aviation and Related Services. With regard to Sharing of Airlines Facilities, this is being undertaken through the sharing of simulator training and training facilities such as in the field of engineering and training programme.
Due to the inability of ASEAN Airlines to further lower their fares, the present fares for the ASEAN Circle Trip and ASEAN Promotional Fares would remain. As such, other avenues to encourage intra-ASEAN travel should therefore be explored including the provision of better offers from hotels and travel agents. Similarly, the promotion of charter inclusive tour traffic was no longer given emphasis due to the non-availability of pressing demand, the relatively small part of charter traffic from the airlines carriage and the preferences of ASEAN Airlines to concentrate on scheduled traffic.
Programmes for information exchange has become a continuous activity. This included exchanges of research information on meteorology; new facilities and equipment in meteorological services; and aviation training facilities. Other continued activities were the monitoring of the implementation of the Agreement for the Facilitation of Search of Aircraft in Distress and Rescue of Survivors in Aircraft Accidents, 1972, Air Traffic Services Coordination Procedures in South China Sea Contingency Agreements and the installation of 3 Local User Terminals; 2 in Indonesia and 1 in Singapore to improve the Satellite Aided and Rescue System.
Future plans are also in hand to enhance cooperation in civil aviation and related services, including its contribution to the Visit ASEAN Year 1992. These are :
Land Transportation
Cooperation in the area of land transportation was somewhat discouraging during the period under review due to several reasons, including the lack of available funding. Many projects and related activities planned to further enhance cooperation in this sub-sector could not be implemented as scheduled due to either awaiting funding commitment from dialogue partners or delays in the implementation by the dialogue partners. The projects included the proposed establishment of Training Centres in Land Transportation; Standardization of Weights and Dimensions of Vehicle Used in the International Traffic; Studies in Inland Waterways and Ferry Links Development; Urban Railway System; Proposed Establishment of Research Centres on Road Safety; Standardization of Vehicle Inspection in ASEAN Countries; Free Flow of Private Vehicles within ASEAN; and Standardization of Road Design.
Posts and Telecommunications
Some encouraging achievements were made in the area of Posts to enhance cooperation in this field and to better serve the people in the ASEAN region. The provision of better quality and standard of postal services was given greater emphasis and in some area of services readiness to compete with the private courriers became apparent.
The Reduced Priority Air Service (RPA) and Surface Air Lifted Service (SAL) designed to maximize airmail traffic have been a success and efforts are continuously undertaken to further improve the quality of these services. However, as the further success of these services would depend on the conveyance rate quoted by the airlines, member countries would negotiate with their national airlines as well as other ASEAN Airlines with the view to obtaining discounted rates.
The Inter-Country Remittance Services was implemented amongst Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia and Singapore in the provision of Postal Order and Telegraphic Money Order Services. These services could be extended to other member countries in view of its popularity. With regard to International Express Mail Services, priority would be given to its quality and standard of services and monitoring would be carried out with the aim of achieving a standard of service higher than those offered by the private couriers. During the period under review, Malaysia had implemented the automatic letter sorting machines as part of a mechanisation program to upgrade the quality of service. The Malaysian experience in this field could be shared by other member countries.
Another notable achievement in the area of Posts was the unanimous agreement in POSTEL's contribution to mark the 25th Anniversary of ASEAN in 1992 namely the issuance of Commemorative Stamps and ASEAN Programme. The program for the exchange of postal officers was also revived to expose postal officials to environment and practices in other ASEAN countries, and to establish better understanding among them which would greatly contribute to the further enhancement of ASEAN cooperation in this field.
In the area of Telecommunications, activities were continued to monitor development in satellite communications and the implementation of radio frequency coordination. A project to train ASEAN telecommunications personnel in the use. of computers for commercial and administrative application in telecommunications was successfully conducted in Canada under the Canadian assistance. A study is also being undertaken to provide better and wider coverage of cellular radio telephone system covering areas such as the planning, design, maintenance, tariff charging, legal implications and other related aspects.
The Memorandum of Understanding for the construction of ASEAN Optical Fibre Submarine Cable Network was finally signed in Jakarta on 8 March 1990 after several postponements. With the signing, member Governments have also agreed to facilitate the implementation of the Network by expediting the issuance of permits for the route survey and cable laying. The Network is expected to be ready for service upon the completion of its various segments as follows :
Several other projects and activities are also being planned to further improve the provision of telecommunications services and to further strengthen ASEAN cooperation in this field. Projects on the Standardization of Regional Signalling System in Telecommunications Network and Radio Paging Services in ASEAN Countries are two examples of projects which needs immediate implementation. However, due to the non-availability of funding, these project could only be implemented during 1992-1996 when UNDP funding is made available. In addition, discussion is ongoing to introduce a more attractive intraASEAN Telephone tariff structure taking into consideration the existence of some border rate being practiced in the region which is lower than the normal international rate.
ASEAN Transportation Network
COTAC's initiatives to strengthen the existing notes of transportation and the establishment of new rail, road, ferry, sea and air links to ultimately form ASEAN transportation network suffered a setback especially when assistance from international financial institutions/organizations such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank was not forthcoming. COTAC's technical subsidiaries were also slow in the identification of related projects to realize these initiatives although some attempt was made in this respect. This included the Malaysia-Thailand Landbridge in land transportation; and the regional radio paging service and regional C7 signalling plan in the telecommunication subsector. In the areas of Civil Aviation, the existing inter-ASEAN air links between capital points was regarded as contributing towards the initiatives and new areas of cooperation were also identified such as the Sharing of ASEAN Airlines Facilities, and cooperation on fuel purchase and pooling of aircraft parts. The piece-meal identification of projects to realise the formation of ASEAN transportation network was to a certain extent the manifestation of the absence of a clear project concept as well as other factors.
Related to the formation of the ASEAN transportation network was the introduction of multimodal transport and the application of electronic data interchange in the process. The successful implementation of this project would enable the carriage of goods through more than one mode of transportation using a paperless document. The obvious outcome would be the further competitive 83 enhancement of ASEAN trade and ASEAN's capability to stay in the mainstream of technological advancement in the transport sector. However, due to financial constraints, the full implementation of this project suffered a setback although awareness campaigns related to the project were undertaken through the assistance of the South East Asian Agency for Regional Transport and Communications Development. Subsequently, a portion of the full-fledged project concerning various obstacles/constraints to the smooth movement of cargo was reformulated under a new project entitled ASEAN Cargo Transport Study to be implemented in 1990 under the Canadian Assistance. In view of the importance attached to this project, multimodalism transport and new information technology was endorsed as the thrust area for future activities in the area of transportation and communications.
PP Centres of Excellence
The establishment of Centres of Excellence, another new initiative, was actively implemented in the area of civil aviation and related services. During the period under review, the Civil Aviation Training Centre in Singapore was endorsed to conduct training in Instrument Procedures Design (PANOPS) in addition to other courses earlier approved, while Civil Aviation College in Malaysia would be the centre for Aviation Security training. In the area of land transportation, a proposal was made to establish a Training Centre in Land Transportation and Japanese funding is being sought to implement this project.
In conclusion, mixed progress was achieved to accomplish the furtherance of ASEAN Cooperation in transportation and communications. Various sector-specific issues and issues related to project funding have emerged requiring close attention. Meanwhile, efforts would continue to be undertaken to strengthen cooperation in this sector. In this regard, the formulation of network-based projects and projects that could sustain long term ASEAN cooperation in the sector including the formulation of common policy strategies and actions should be initiated. The private sector should also be further stimulated to actively contribute both their ideas and participation in supporting ASEAN's endeavour in this field.

For more information, please refer to the Table 1 and Table 2