EASTS XII: East Asia Traffic Safety Solution

Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr Khuat Viet Hung, Vice Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee and Head of the EASTS XII Organising Committee and the Road Safety Symposium 2017, on relevant issues.

EASTS XII Conference has once again come to Vietnam after 16 years. Could you please tell us about the new features of this conference?
In 2001, under the sponsorship of the Ministry of Transport of Vietnam, the Vietnam Road and Bridge Association successfully organised the 4th EASTS Conference in Hanoi.

This year, the National Traffic Safety Committee plans to combine the 12th International Conference on Traffic Safety in East Asia (EASTS XII) 2017 and the Annual Conference of Vietnam Traffic Safety Scientists in order to update the current situation and bring about community effects, as in the 2016 Traffic Safety Plan 594/KH. The conference will be held in Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong province in four days from September 18 to 21, 2017 with the participation of about 1,000 domestic and foreign traffic scientists and specialists.

Main sessions in Ho Chi Minh City are themed “Vision and Action Programme for Safe, Green and Integrated Transport”.

Main conference sessions include pavement and road maintenance; traffic management and control; capacity and traffic flow analysis; driving behaviour; intelligent transport systems (ITS); accident and safety; travel demand modelling; travel behaviour analysis; transport planning and policy; traffic simulation; public transport; pedestrian and bicycle transportation; urban and regional planning; transportation project evaluation; parking policy; freight transportation and logistics; air and water transportation policy; robust and resilient transportation; energy and environment; survey and data collection; historical studies and international cooperation; tourism; bus operation and planning; and terminal planning. This will be also combined with technical tours to Underground Metro Construction Site (Line 1) (including Ben Thanh Market underground station) in Ho Chi Minh City and the Centre of Intelligent Transport System (Ho Chi Minh–Trung Luong Highway.)

The special session is themed “Binh Duong: Vision on safe transport system a smart and worth-living city”.

Topics in Binh Duong include road traffic safety management; road traffic infrastructure and organisation; road transport; traffic participants; response after traffic accident; railway traffic safety; inland waterway traffic safety; defining the vision, challenges and short-term and long-term solutions for sustainable transport development in Binh Duong, including: transport management to reduce traffic congestions; applying the concept of public transportation planning for motorcycle-dense cities, pedestrian and bicycle transport; applying ITS in Vietnam's transport; freight transportation, traffic safety and personal transport.

The conference is meaningful for Vietnam as EASTS member states share a lot of similarities with Vietnam. Thus, sharing lessons learned and solutions with these countries is scientifically and practically valuable for Vietnam.

From the perspective of the organiser, could you tell us the significance of the conference in the current context of traffic?
We all know that traffic safety requires solutions from a variety of areas, from construction, engineering, health, education, communication, law-making and enforcement. The combination of cross-sector efforts for traffic safety and traffic accident reduction not only challenges State agencies, enforcement forces and social political unions, but also needs answers to the root and nature of these matters.

In particular, in the context of rising life quality requirements and sweeping globalisation of economy, politics and social culture, traffic safety is becoming increasingly complex, requiring rapid information collection and processing before making decisions. For that reason, scientific research and technological application, especially information technology, become more and more important and urgent than ever.

What do you expect from the conference?
We expect that technological solutions, proposals, discussions and exchanges from the conference will effectively help central and local authorities, businesses and organisations concerned to ensure road, rail and water traffic order and safety. The objective is helping traffic accidents in Vietnam and promote sustainable transport system development in the country.

The Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies (EASTS), established in 1994, is an international forum in Asia seeking to foster and support excellence in transportation research and practice, and to stimulate professional exchange in all aspects and modes of transportation among members, including Australia, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The International Conference of EASTS is held every two years to create and promote transport research cooperation among EASTS member countries.