SOUTH ASIA REGIONAL INITIATIVE

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1 SOUTH ASIA REGIONAL INITIATIVE MINUTES OF MEETING Prepared by: SARI Coordinator SARI 11 th Steering Committee Meeting held in Bangkok on the 8 th of February 2017 MEETING PARTICIPANTS Organisations represented: South Asian CAAs: CAA Bhutan, CAA Maldives, CAA Nepal and CAA Sri Lanka. COSCAP-SA ICAO Regional Office Airbus EASA SARI Apologies for absence: CAA Afghanistan, CAA Bangladesh, DGCA India, CAA Pakistan (Please refer to the list of participants given in Annex 1) MINUTES 1. INTRODUCTION The 11 th Steering Committee meeting was opened by the SARI Chairman, who welcomed the representatives of Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka as well as the representatives from ICAO Asia Pacific Regional Office, COSCAP-SA, Airbus, EASA and SARI. In his opening speech he recalled the long history of cooperation between the ICAO Member States from Asia starting with the Conference of the Directors General of Civil Aviation of the Asia Pacific Region in 1960, followed by the creation of COSCAP-South Asia in 1997 and later on by the foundation of SARI in He pointed out that SARI has achieved significant results in the development and implementation of airworthiness regulations in South Asia despite an informal framework and the common problem of a lack of human resources that the SARI Member State authorities are facing. The Chairman highlighted the importance of cooperation between Member States as reflected by Resolution 39/14 of the 39 th Session of the Assembly of ICAO, directing the Council and urging the States to engage in Regional cooperation and assistance to resolve safety deficiencies, establishing priorities and setting measurable targets. He thanked SARI s partners such as the EU, EASA and Airbus for the contribution they have provided so far to SARI and welcomed the new 4 year EU-South Asia Aviation Partnership project launched in December 2016, which will further strengthen regional cooperation in order to achieve the highest level of aviation safety in South Asia. 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 1 / 14

2 Recognising that the civil aviation sector in South Asia is expected to grow faster than anywhere else in the world in the coming years, the Chairman expressed his high expectations for this new EU initiative that may help to overcome some of the current limitations of SARI and pave the way for the possible establishment of a Regional Safety Oversight Organisation (RSOO), which will ease the burdens that some individual States of the South Asia Region are facing. In his closing remarks the Chairman thanked all participants for their attendance and support to SARI and declared the meeting open. Please refer to Annex 4 Opening Speech of the SARI Chairman. The draft agenda was approved without change. The agenda is attached to these minutes as Annex OUTCOMES OF THE MEETING 2.1 Reminder of the 10 th SC meeting The main outcomes of the 10 th SC meeting held two years ago in Bangkok were reviewed and discussed, in particular: RSOOs: The SARI Member States had agreed to provide SARI with a more formal agreement and to develop a funding mechanism. Despite the efforts of the SARI Chairman during the penultimate COSCAP-SA Steering Committee meeting, no progress has been observed. Airbus who supported SARI from the on-set, suggested to the SC, after ten years of successful SARI work, to take SARI to a higher regional political level with the objective to obtain a regional/multilateral and more binding agreement for the implementation of a single set of regulation developed by SARI. They highlighted that a more formal multilateral agreement would foster the political support from the individual governments and the required resources. Airbus suggested to develop a road map towards such an agreement, including an analysis of existing regional bodies, which could serve as a vehicle as well as an analysis of the compatibility of each state s legal framework for such an agreement. Airbus then briefly explained the functioning of the regional initiative they have supported in Central America, namely ACSA, where the development of a so-called binding regulation (Regulation 11) has remedied some of the difficulties that SARI is facing. There was a general agreement from the participants that development of an RSOO was the preferable way forward to resolve SARI s issues. The ICAO APAC Regional Office Director confirmed ICAO s commitment to promote and support the RSOO concept and pointed out particular progress in Africa. However the political commitment of ICAO contracting states to create an RSOO is difficult when no preexisting legal structure through which to anchor an RSOO. The Director suggested raising this subject this week at the Bangkok Regional Office of ICAO at the working group meeting of the planned Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference. The EU-South Asia Project Director pointed out that some mechanisms or forums to address 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 2 / 14

3 the development of a RSOO might already exist under the umbrella of SAARC, as the SAARC trade agreement includes transport. So far aviation has not been given high priority.. The SARI Chairman supported by the ICAO APRO Director highlighted that any move towards the development of a regional organisation such as a RSOO will imply the involvement of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of the different Member States and therefore will require significant time and effort. EASA invited the states to attend a joint ICAO / EASA forum on RSOOs which will take place in Swaziland from 22 to 24 of March EASA highlighted they would be happy to support the travel cost (business class airfare and hotel including breakfast) of two senior delegates from each SARI Member State. SARI & COSCAP-SA cooperation: The agreement on continued cooperation between the two initiatives is proving effective and is illustrated by the participation of the COSCAP-SA Chief Technical Advisor (CTA) in the meeting, as well as through the development of the COSCAP-SA-EASA-SARI Joint Activity Plan. EASA compliance checklists: EASA had previously provided its agreement to provide the SARI MS with access to its ICAO compliance checklists. These have been sent to each SARI Member States and are also available on the ICAO page of the EASA website. The development of a 3-year SARI work plan. Due to budget constraints the 2016 work plan was heavily reduced. This action was therefore not completed. Agreement from the SARI MS to provide regular information on their SARI Parts implementation status. This action has not been completed. 2.2 SARI Main achievements since the 10 th SC meeting As no SARI Steering Committee meeting was held in 2016, SARI s achievements for both 2015 and 2016 were reviewed: 16 SARI activities have been completed including 8 SARI Implementation Workshops (145, M, 66 & 147), 2 specific workshops and 6 SARI Working Group meetings. SARI Part 66 (issue 2 dated ) has been aligned with the EU/EASA regulation amendments up to SARI Part 145 (issue 2 R1 dated ) has been aligned with EU/EASA regulation amendments up to SARI Part 21 is under development and should be completed by mid SARI Part OPS and FCL: The SARI Member States were invited to attend two workshops on run by EASA in Male and funded by CAA Maldives. Consolidation of a team of SARI experts to run the SARI Implementation Workshops: Although the number of SARI experts has not increased since 2015 (14 from 6 out of the 7 SARI Member States) the expertise of the SARI experts has been significantly enhanced as reported by the EU experts assessing their performance. There is an absence of SARI experts from India as the DGCA s experts were not able to attend the SARI Working Group meetings. COSCAP-SA informed the meeting they are developing a qualification matrix for COSCAP- SA experts, which has some inconsistency in the field of airworthiness with the SARI experts list. COSCAP-SA informed the meeting they would review their qualification criteria with the States, particularly regarding the need for inspectors to possess an Aircraft Maintenance Licence. 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 3 / 14

4 The Implementation Workshop concept is considered a success in terms of supporting capacity building. However the 3 workshops run in January 2017 (therefore outside the present reporting period) have shown common issues preventing the proper implementation of SARI Parts: Lack of qualified staff Absence of a correct procedure to support the implementation process Significant differences (National Variants) with respect to harmonised SARI Parts National Variants not communicated to SARI The issues identified during the Implementation Workshops are also additionally relevant for the SARI Member States who will receive a ICAO USOAP audit or ICVM in SARI encouraged the SARI Member States to develop and implement their corrective action plans in line with recommendations made. SARI s main issues (different speed of implementation of the SARI Parts and lack of participation of Member States in Working Group meetings) as reported during the 10 th SARI SC meeting in 2015 are not yet resolved. EASA offered its assistance on request to SARI Member States facing these difficulties SARI Work Plan The draft work plan was developed and reviewed to address the following objectives: Strengthen cooperation on training between COSCAP-SA and SARI Emphasise the implementation of the airworthiness-related SARI Parts Extend SARI s scope to the development of a harmonised flight operations and flight crew licensing regulation based on the relevant EASA Parts. Several Member States underlined that they will face ICAO USOAP and ICVM audits in 2017 (Nepal in June/July 2017 (ICVM), Bangladesh September 2017 (ICVM), India in November 2017 (Audit) and Sri Lanka end of October to beginning of November 2017 (Audit). SARI agreed to revise the work plan accordingly. Other decisions were to: Move the SARI OPS Implementation Workshop planned in Maldives from May to July Move the SARI Part 145 Implementation Workshop in Bangladesh from June to July 2017 Run the SARI Part M Implementation Workshop in Nepal beginning of May Move the Part 66 & 147 Implementation Workshop in Sri Lanka to end of November As the development of SARI Part OPS and FCL was considered premature, replace the 3 SARI OPS and FCL WG meetings with 2 SARI OPS and FCL seminars (road shows) to be arranged in November / December Note 1: Following the previous SARI OPS and FCL workshops, EASA highlighted that one of their OPS experts would team up with a CAA Maldives OPS expert to visit Bhutan next week to assess the impact of changing their current regulation based on EU OPS into EASA OPS. COSCAP-SA explained that due to the situation of aviation in Bhutan, deploying the 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 4 / 14

5 full scope of EASA Part OPS would not be appropriate. Note 2: The SARI Member States asked that SARI OPS and FCL seminars keep in mind the ICAO USOAP audit and therefore include a comparison between EASA Part OPS and FCL and the ICAO annexes. Define the content of the 3 SARI Part Seminars (M, 145 & 66/147) and coordinate their schedule with COSCAP-SA. As COSCAP-SA is planning similar courses run by EASA under the COSCAP-SA/EASA/SARI Joint Activity Plan, the 3 SARI seminars may be replaced by involving SARI qualified experts in the delivery of the EASA courses. As Bhutan have limited activities in maintenance personnel licensing, a question was raised on whether a Part 66 Implementation Workshop is worthwhile. SARI explained that there would be value for Bhutan in reviewing their issuance process. It was agreed to keep the activity within the planning. Airbus confirmed their intention to support the SARI Part 21 wrap-up meeting in Pakistan. It was however agreed to run it in July 2017 after Ramadan. As agreed by the 11 th SARI SC meeting a 3-year SARI work plan will be developed. However the revised 2017 work plan, including the changes agreed during the meeting, will first be published to allow preparation of the activities to be delivered during Q2 of Although considered approved, the revised work plan is subject to changes during the course of its implementation. When available amendments will be sent to the SARI Coordinator, EASA, COSCAP-SA and Airbus and posted on the SARI website. The revised work plan dated is attached as Annex SARI possible improvements This topic was addressed under paragraphs 2.1 & 2.2 above. 2.5 Joint Activity Plan The COSCAP-SA CTA explained that the training programme had been designed to satisfy the needs expressed by the COSCAP-SA National Coordinators. As not all demands can be addressed, COSCAP-SA focused those expressed at least by 4 COSCAP-SA Member States and then passed the result of this analysis to EASA who has developed the Joint Activity Plan. A draft plan including 22 courses encompassing activities in the field of airworthiness, flight operations, personnel licensing, SMS and SSP has been sent to each of the COSCAP-SA Member States for comments or approval. The proposal takes into account the national holidays in the different Member States, but not yet other events such as Ramadan or the ICAO USOAP audit / ICVM for which the dates were not yet perfectly know at that time. EASA explained that these activities would be delivered by the States counterpart authority colleagues from EASA Member State authorities. As these time taken out by these experts has to be programmed far in advance, EASA requested the SARI Member States to provide any comments before the end of February 2017, ideally via the COSCAP-SA national coordinators, in order to have sufficient time to confirm the earlier courses. 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 5 / 14

6 COSCAP-SA underlined that the plan is quite ambitious as it does not include the 24 COSCAP- SA courses that will also be delivered by the CTA and therefore some courses might take place in EASA confirmed there was no obligation for all the joint courses to be delivered in COSCAP-SA also pointed out that all COSCAP-SA Member States are invited to join each of the activity but as most of the courses are limited to 16 participants a maximum of 2 seats will be allocated to each non-hosting Member State. The SARI Vice Chairman requested the course syllabuses match the regulations of the Member States. EASA agreed to pay attention to this. EASA confirmed that they will manage the registration procedure in coordination with COSCAP-SA State to ensure the smooth implementation of each training activity. CAA Maldives volunteered to host course numbers 109 and 23.2 instead of the two other courses they had been allocated. They also requested COSCAP-SA to run a basic SMS course before the SMS Analysis Workshop to be delivered by ICAO. The States confirmed they would welcome delegates from CAA Afghanistan to the courses hosted. 2.6 EU-South Asia Aviation Partnership project Objectives EASA presented preliminary information on the overall objectives of the new EU-South Asia project for civil aviation as well as on the project structure. The Project Director (Mr Mahmood Razee) and Project Operations Manager (Ms Mojca Melaranta) were introduced. The contract for this four-year project was signed in December Contrary to previous EU initiatives for aviation in South Asia, EASA has been allowed by the European Commission to implement some activities identified before the project inception phase is complete. Under this context some of the SARI activities, including the 11 th SC meeting, were already organised and the Joint Activity Plan prepared. EASA explained that the main objectives of the project are to enhance EU-SA relations, to develop capacity for safety oversight and to improve environmental performance. The project is managed by EASA relying on the resources from several EU institutional partners and organisations. The implementation of the COSCAP-SA/EASA/SARI Joint Activity Plan is one of the deliverables of the project. The project will not only focus on safety and the environment, but cover the full scope of aviation. EASA proposed to present the first work plan of the project during a Project Management Board meeting with the South Asian partners alongside the ICAO Asia Pacific DGCA meeting in Mongolia in August Following discussion on the possibility to organise the meeting earlier, EASA offer to explore the possibility to arrange a Project Management Board meeting at the RSOO conference in Swaziland. It was however recognised that organising such meeting within a month would be extremely challenging. Airbus recommended to identify clear tangible achievements for the project s duration and to also address ATM and airport improvements. EASA acknowledge the recommendation and confirmed that safety was not the only objective and as an example mentioned the possible 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 6 / 14

7 cooperation between universities involved in aviation in Europe and South Asia. EASA explained that the four-year work plan has yet to be developed and confirmed that the project will be designed to achieve tangible sustainable results. EASA also informed the delegates that Afghanistan would be one of the South Asian partners for this project, however due to the security situation no activities would be able to be delivered onsite. 2.7 Election of the new Chairman and Vice-Chairman The SARI MS and EASA praised the current Chairman and Vice Chairman for their commitment and actions over the last two years and suggested the continuation of their respective responsibilities. Mr Parakrama Dissanayake (Sri Lanka) and Mr Ahmed Fazeel (Maldives) were re-elected in their respective roles for another year. 3. CONCLUSIONS SARI will work towards evolving into a RSOO through signature of commonly agreed framework. SAARC may be one solution to realising an RSOO in South Asia, provided aviation is given sufficiently high priority. ICAO APAC RO will raise the subject of an RSOO to address common issues at the next conference of APAC aviation ministers. SARI MS are showing progress as all SARI Parts on airworthiness will be completed by 2017 with the publication of SARI Part 21. The implementation of the SARI Parts by the SARI Member States is progressing at a mixed pace however. The expertise of the pool of SARI experts has been significantly enhanced but the number of qualified SARI experts remains low. SARI MS authorities are encourage to resolve the deficiencies highlighted in their implementation workshops that may affect the results of their next ICAO USOAP audit or ICVM. SARI Member States will work to resolve the difficulties already outlined during the 10 th SC meeting and encouraged their experts to attend SARI activities. EASA offered to provide assistance as necessary. Before embarking on the development of SARI Part OPS and FCL, SARI will arrange two seminars on EASA Part OPS & FCL. This will include the main outcomes of the work performed with the Maldives and Bhutan, and a comparison with the relevant ICAO annexes. The 2017 SARI Work Plan has been amended and the issue dated is considered approved. This issue is subject to changes to take into account inputs requested by the SARI Member States who could not attend the meeting. SARI will develop a three-year work plan. The activities included in the Joint Activity Plan may be carried over to 2018 as needed. The States will provide COSCAP-SA with their comments on the draft programme before the end of February CAA Maldives requested a SMS basic course from COSCAP-SA before the SMS Analysis Workshop to be delivered by ICAO They also asked to host course 109 and 23.2 instead of the 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 7 / 14

8 two already allocated to Maldives. Two seminars included in the 2017 SARI Work plan may be effected by the participation of SARI experts in delivering two courses to be delivered by EASA under the umbrella of COSCAP-SA. The new EU-SA aviation project will target sustainable results and will cover the full scope of aviation, not only training on safety. The detailed content of the project is planned to be presented to the SA partners alongside the ICAO Asia Pacific DGCA meeting in Mongolia in August 2017 or possibly back to back with the RSOO conference in Swaziland end of March The current SARI Chairman and Vice-Chairman were re-elected for 2017 ************* 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 8 / 14

9 Annex 1 List of Participants Country Participant Organisation / Title Bhutan Maldives Maldives Maldives Nepal Nepal Sri Lanka ICAO ICAO ICAO Europe Europe Mr Sangay Tenzin Mr Hussain Jaleel M. Abdulla Mohamed Mr Ahmed Fazeel Mr Sanjiv Gautam Mr Bhesh Raj Subedi Mr Parakrama Dissanayake Mr Arun Mishra Mr Cheong Tuck Kong Ms Marie Zubryckyj Mr David Waller Ms Mojca Melaranta DCA Bhutan Director Flight Safety CAA Maldives CEO CAD Maldives Director Airworthiness TMA (Maldives) SARI Vice Chairman CAA Nepal Director General CAA Nepal Chief Flight Safety Standards Dpt CAA Sri Lanka Additional Director General and SARI Chairman ICAO Asia & Pacific Office Regional Director ICAO Asia and Pacific Office Regional Expert (Flight Safety) COSCAP SA Chief Technical Advisor EASA International Cooperation Officer/South Asia Regional Manager EASA International Cooperation Officer/EU- South Asia Project Operations Manager Europe Mr Mahmood Razee EU-SA Project Director Europe Mr Andreas Kohn AIRBUS Senior Director Int l Air Transport Cooperation South Asia Mr Decha Maliyan SARI Operations Manager South Asia Mr Eric Dormoy SARI Coordinator 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 9 / 14

10 Annex 2 $ 11 TH$ SARI$STEERING$COMMITTEE$MEETING$ $ 8$February$2017$ Bangkok$?$Thailand$ $ Venue$ $Sukhothai$Hotel$Sathorn$Road$ $ Agenda' Registration Welcome SARI Chairman Introduction of the participants All Agenda approval SARI Chairman Reminder of the last SCM (10 th ) SARI Coordinator Coffee break Main achievements of SARI since the 10 th SC meeting SARI Coordinator Draft 2017 SARI Work Plan Discussion Lunch Approval of the 2017 SARI Work Plan Discussion SARI possible improvements Discussion Tea break EU-SA Aviation Project (FPI) - Objectives EASA Joint Activity Plan 2017 EASA Conclusion & closing SARI Chairman ****************** 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 10 / 14

11 Annex SARI WORK PLAN Issue ACTIVITIES( LOCATION( DATES( 11 th $SC$MEETING$ Bangkok$ 8$Feb$2017$ ( ( ( SARI'Part'66'&'147'IWS' Maldives' Completed' SARI'Part'145'IWS' Sri'Lanka' Completed' 6 th $SARI$M$WG$meeting$ Nepal$ Completed$ SARI'Part'145'IWS' India' Completed' SARI'Part'147'IWS' India' Completed' SARI'Part'66'&'147'IWS' Nepal' 27'Feb'to'3'Mar'2017' SARI'Part'145'IWS' Maldives' 16'to'20'April'2017' 7 th $SARI$21$WG$meeting$ Sri$Lanka$ 24$to$28$April$2017$ SARI'Part'M'IWS' Nepal' 15'to'19'May'2017' SARI'Part'66/147'IWS' Bhutan' 22'to'25'May'2017' SARI$Part$21$wrap?up$ Pakistan$ 3$to$7$July$2017$ SARI'Part'OPS'IWS' Maldives' 10'to'14'July'2017' SARI'Part'145'IWS' Bangladesh' '24'to'28'July'2017' SARI'Part'M'IWS' India' Q3'TBD' SARI(Part(M(Seminar( Pakistan( Q4(TBD( SARI(Part(66/147(Seminar( Nepal( Q4(TBD( SARI(Part(145(Seminar( TBD( Q4(TBD( SARI$OPS$Seminar/road$show$ Nepal$ 13$to$17$Nov$2017$ SARI$OPS$Seminar/road$show$ Sri$Lanka$ 20$to$24$Nov$2017$ SARI'Part'66'&'147'IWS' Sri'Lanka' 26'Nov'to'1'Dec' 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 11 / 14

12 Annex 4 WELCOME SPEECH OF THE CHAIRMAN SARI AT THE OPENING OF THE 11 th STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING ON 08 th FEBRUARY 2017, SUKHOTHAI HOTEL IN BANGKOK, THAILAND Mr. Arun Mishra, Regional Director, Asia Pacific Regional Office of ICAO Bangkok Mr. Hussain Jaleel, Chief Executive, Maldives Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Sanjiv Gautam, Director General, Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, Mr. Sangay Tenzin, Director Flight Safety, Bhutan Civil Aviation Authority Mr. Ahmed Fazeel, Vice Chairman, SARI, Mr. David Waller, Technical Cooperation Regional Manager, European Aviation Safety Agency Mr. Mahmood Razee, Project Manager, EU-South Asia Project, Mr. Andreas Kohn, Senior Director, Int l Air Transport Cooperation, AIRBUS, Mr. Eric Dormoy, Co-ordinator of the Regional Initiative Projects in South Asia & South East Asia, Capt. Marie Zubryckyj, Chief Technical Adviser, COSCAP-SA, Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen, A very good morning to all of you and a warm welcome to the 11 th Steering Committee Meeting of the South Asia Regional Initiative, SARI, which is commencing now, here in Bangkok. SARI Steering Committee is meeting today after exactly two years. I may say that the SARI went through somewhat difficult times during the two years lapsed. Nevertheless, following this meeting, we will have the opportunity to re-group strongly again and enter into a new phase of life for SARI, as the agenda for today is going to unfold very good news for the South Asia Region in the ensuing years. Therefore, I am pleased to see the presence of Mr. Arun Mishra, Regional Director and his team, the Directors General of Civil Aviation and Heads of Delegations of the SA States and their teams, the European partners EASA and AIRBUS and of course the SARI team to witness that important occasion. I do not wish to re-visit the recent past of SARI because we have gathered here to look forward to the future. But I may mention something about our beginning for the benefit of the meeting. We in the Asia Pacific Region has been working together for a long time as Members States of ICAO under the auspices of the Regional Office. In that, I could highlight a milestone, the commencement of the Conference of the Directors General of Civil Aviation of the Asia Pacific Region in 1960 which provided a common forum for the DGCAs to interact with each other and to build common initiatives. For the DGCAs in the South Asian States, another key milestone came about in 1997 with the setting up of the pioneering co-operative arrangement for ensuring Operational Safety and Continuing Airworthiness, which is the COSCAP-South Asia, which completed 20 years of running last month. One another important event took place 10 years ago, when the DGCAs of South Asia got together to work together in partnership with Europe, under the banner of SARI. SARI is for harmonized rule making for South Asia, for the time being. It started with developing maintenance regulations in line with EASA parts. We will see the current progress in a while, as to where we stand today. SARI started as an initiative to bridge the gap between the previous EU sponsored technical co-operation project for South Asia, which was conducted from September 2003 to August 2006, and the second project envisaged by South Asia to have been offered by the European Commission. This meeting will await to hear the good news from Europe on the eagerly awaited second project. SARI had been functioning so far with the club status, which means that it did not have a solid legal footing 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 12 / 14

13 but just a mutually consented arrangement. I wish to emphasize and kindly request that SARI Member States may strengthen their active participation in the process of regulation harmonization to strengthen the SARI framework. We also take a note of the slow implementation of the SARI parts in most of the Member States as well as the recurrent problem of lack of human resources. Through the implementation of the new project, SARI is expected to achieve continued sustainability. During this meeting we would also look forward to see how best the new project initiative could combine the synergies between, Europe, SARI and also COSCAP South Asia which would avoid any overlaps if working separately from each other. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you look around the globe, co-operation among states and regional partnerships are found abundantly. Technical and Regional Co-operation is one of the agenda items of the Asia Pacific DGCA Conference. Of the 26 Action Items arising out of the last DGCA Conference, 6 have been on Technical and Regional Co-operation. Further, the 39 th Session of the Assembly of ICAO adopted a Resolution under 39/14, directing the Council and urging the States for Regional cooperation and assistance to resolve safety deficiencies, establishing priorities and setting measurable targets. The Resolution points that the primary objective of the ICAO continues to be that of ensuring the safety of international civil aviation worldwide. But ensuring the safety of international civil aviation is also the responsibility of Member States both collectively and individually. It adds that in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation each Member State undertakes to collaborate in securing the highest practicable degree of uniformity in regulation, standards, procedures and organization in relation to aircraft, personnel, airports, airways and auxiliary services in all matters in which uniformity will facilitate and improve air navigation. Improvement of the safety of international civil aviation on a worldwide basis requires the active collaboration of all stakeholders, the Resolution further observed. The long term partnership between South Asia and Europe that we are about to renew is a measure taken collectively to express our support to implement the above Resolution, which urges Member States to develop and further strengthen regional and sub-regional cooperation in order to promote the highest degree of aviation safety. If we could foster technical and regional co-operation and thrust it in the right direction we could sometimes end up reaching more milestones by even establishing a RSOO, the Regional Safety Oversight Organization, which will ease the burdens on individual States but take that on a shared basis in the South Asia Region. I invite this meeting to conclude the maximum benefit for our region. And I believe that enough quorum and overall presence of key personnel are there on this occasion to conclude the SCM successfully. In conclusion, may I thank the Regional Director, Mr. Mishra, who himself has taken part in SARI SCMs before, as an active participant as the DGCA India. I take this opportunity to thank you for your presence with your team from ICAO, including the CTA COSCAP-SA. I also extend the thanks of SARI to the DGCAs of the SA States, Heads of Delegations and all the delegates for being present and upholding the spirit of regional and technical co-operation of South Asia. Let me thank EU, the Commission and EASA for all the support given to this region, and moreover, sustaining that support. Thank you Mr. Waller for your presence here with the team on behalf of EASA technical co-operation towards South Asia. I also thank Airbus for being a very strong partner of SARI, who ensured during the past that SARI exists to carry forward the good work, especially during the not so good times of SARI. Thanks Mr. Andreas for that effort. 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 13 / 14

14 May I also extend my thanks to our good friend, Mr. Fazeel from the Maldives who is the Vice Chairman of SARI for continuing your support to the SARI affairs. Mr. Eric Dormoy has been with SARI, bridging all the gaps with his team. The livewire of the SARI. A big thank you Eric. With that I conclude my thoughts to open up the SCM. I look forward to your contributions for a fruitful meeting, Thank you, very much. ********** 11 th SARI SC meeting MOM Final issue 14 / 14