India committed to ICAO's goals to achieve safety, security in aviation: Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju

India is committed to the UN aviation agency’s performance-driven and result-based goals to achieve consistent improvements in safety, security and environment, Union Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has said.

The minister for Civil Aviation led an Indian delegation to the first ‘Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference’ held here.

The two-day conference which began on January 31 was held to address the issue of Universal Safety Oversite Audit Programme (USOAP) of the Montreal-based ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation).

The issues of air navigation were also discussed, as it was felt that there is no regionally coordinated future plans on Air Traffic Management like the SESAR in Europe or NextGen in USA, an official statement said.

The core objective of this conference was to get potential mandate from Ministers of Asia Pacific region to collaborate at the regional level to address the issues of aviation safety, air navigation services, accident investigation and human resource development, it said.

The minister delivered the speech during the conference and highlighted India’s contribution in aviation sector.

He said India remained committed to ICAO’s objectives of performance-driven and result-based management strategies to achieve consistent improvements in the areas of safety, efficiency, security and environment.

Significant improvements have already taken place and will take place in the sphere of providing better airport infrastructure through liberal and dynamic policy initiatives, he said.

A high level declaration was also discussed and adopted during the conference. It lends a clear direction and focus towards speedy development of safe and sustainable civil aviation in Asia Pacific region, the statement said.

The declaration would give a strong support to the Civil Aviation Authorities in the states to implement the priority programme in terms of enhanced availability of resources, it said.

It also gives a very positive signal to the travelling public, industry partners and potential investors about the high level commitment from the states in the region in the areas of safety and efficiency of operations and air navigation services, it said.

The aim of the conference is to implement ICAO’s initiatives of “No Country Left Behind” where there is change in focus from striving for individual states excellence to a scenario where the states and industry partners need to cooperate and collaborate to bring about collective improvements in safety and security standards, it added.

The Minister also had a meeting with Feng Zhenglin, Administrator CAAC (Civil Aviation Administration of China) and discussed various issues including increasing air connectivity between the two countries, the statement said.