Keynote Speech

H.E. Mr. Arkhom Termpittayapaisith

Minister of Transport, Thailand

At Eighty-first annual session of the Inland Transport Committee

Excellencies,

Distinguished Guests,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

In the past few years, we have all witnessed the rise of automation technology across all sectors including transportation which include road, rail, water and air transport not only road and vehicle automation but the intermodal transportation as well. 

Today, automation technology has partially integrated into our daily transport activities from managing traffic light control, navigating our vehicles and moving our freight. Yet, the full potential of automation in transport has not been reached.

The vision of automation in transport that could fully and seamlessly integrated to our daily live would yield great benefit to society from lessening the road safety accident and casualty, reducing congestion and pollution, and enhancing accessibility for disable. For Electronic Vehicle (EV) in Thailand we start to try a run for the EV as well so many charging station has been available in Thailand. But in order to harnessing the full advantages of automation technology, synergy and coordination among relevant parties must be established.

In order to take the journey toward automation transport era, strong commitment from the policy body is a vital key. With such commitment agree-upon master plan and roadmap must be formulated. Such plan need to have a clear vision and direction, and also clearly address role of each party.

For government body, role of creating a facilitation platform that best serve coordination among multi-stakeholder and developing new infrastructure that compatible with automation technology must be specified.

Nonetheless, since the advancement of automotive technology in transport is still evolving, the continuous-review of the plan is crucial so that it can keep pace with the evolving of cutting-edge technology in automation.

In this matter, Thailand is currently formulating our second Intelligent Transport System (ITS) Development Master Plan whose vision is to integrate technologies and transport system together under the concept of informative, assistive, and integrated in order to respond to the need of the people and freight transport.

Like many other countries, our focus is on building the new landscape to effectively embrace the advancement of automation technology in transport.

Lady and gentlemen, May I share with you some of my thought that may be a rising from the view point of less advanced technology country.

First, Institutional Framework to properly advance the automation technology in transport, appropriate rule and regulation as well as and institutional framework must be created. As existing regulations could sometime be barriers to innovation that raises from the automation technology; for example, licensing automotive vehicle and resolving insurance claim against automotive vehicle. As well as the issue of liability to the damage of vehicle, driver, goods and the owner or the company. More importantly standard of new automation technology must be worldwide accepted as well.

Thus, amending the regulations to accommodate the automation in transport is one of the essential keys to the early success of preparing the transport landscape for the future development.

In addition, since driving the automation in transport usually involves the concerted effort of the inter-governmental agencies, it is vital to establish visible policy structure and mechanism to govern the automation in transport from policy formulation to implementation.  

Second, Personal Data Protection integrating data from various agencies and individuals is an essential key to the advancement of the automation in transport.

Nevertheless, high data ownership and concerns regarding to the privacy and misuse of data, especially in the age of digitalization, might hinder the accessibility of the overall data and reduce the optimization of data transfer and usage.

While misuse of such technology could threaten national security such as drug trafficking and terrorist act. Thus, in formulating such regulation government body must carefully and cautiously address all relevant issues to ensure the confidentiality, transparency, and utilization of data that obtains from all parties. In Thailand, the Cabinet have just approve the Draft Law on the Personal Data Protection with the reservation on the use of big data for use in public policy.

Third, Police confidence in public confidence and understanding in these emerging automation technologies in transport will be key success factor as well.

Doubts, concerns, worries, and even refusal by public are common responses when introducing new technology.

Thus, the government should carefully study the potential risk factor on safety that might occur from emerging automation technology in transport and directly communicate these findings and its preventive measures to the public in order to build public confidence.

At the same time, deploying automation technology in transport is likely to have the consequences toward workforce in the transport sector, so measure in lessening the impact from automation technology must be put in place in a timely manner.

Nevertheless, new business and employment opportunities from the automation will also appear. Thus, the government should coordinate with private sectors in providing full assistance to these workers in their transition into new roles over times.

From my perspective, there are a lot of preparation need to be made for us to fully benefit from the era of transport digitalization and automation. But I believe that through synergy and coordination among countries and agencies, namely public, private, and academics will help us overcome challenges and also help us capture opportunities that arises with the advancement of automation technology.

Lady and gentlemen, last but not least, I believe that the Inland Transport Committee, will play a key role toward interoperable solution for future transport and will also provide appropriate platform for all countries to share our thought, knowledge, experiences, and best practices of automation technology in transport. 

To this end, may I wish for the success of this conference and look forward to an in-depth outcome of discussions with strong purpose to move towards the realization of automation technology in transport across the world.

And thank you UNECE for inviting me for the Second time to this publish. Thank you very much.