From January 31 to February 1, the first Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation with the theme of “Asia Pacific: Uniting to Shape the Future of Civil Aviation through Commitment and Collaboration” was held in Beijing. Ma Kai, Vice Premier of the State Council of China attended and addressed the conference. Li Xiaopeng, Minister of Transport was also present. CAAC Administrator Feng Zhenglin, ICAO Council President Benard Aliu and ICAO Secretary General Liu Fang delivered speeches at the opening ceremony of the conference, and the conference discussed and adopted the Beijing Declaration.

During the conference, CAAC Deputy Administrator Li Jian, as the Head of the Chinese Delegation, introduced China’s civil aviation development to all the delegates present. CAAC Deputy Administrator Dong Zhiyi attended the conference and presided over the opening ceremony. CAAC Deputy Administrator Wang Zhiqing was also present at the conference.

The Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation is an international event of the highest level and largest scale on issues related to civil aviation in the Asia Pacific region. The conference was joined by ministers and directors general responsible for civil aviation from 32 ICAO member states in the Asia Pacific region, and persons in charge of civil aviation agencies in 4 states, namely United Kingdom, France, the United States and Russia, and 6 international organizations including International Air Transport Association, totaling nearly 300 people. Extensive discussion was carried out on such common and key issues affecting Asia Pacific civil aviation development as aviation safety, air navigation services, accident investigation and human resource development.

Ma Kai pointed out that the “Belt and Road” initiative brought forth tremendous opportunities for the development of connectivity among countries in Asia Pacific and around the globe. The air transport industry enjoyed unique advantage in strengthening connectivity. Asia Pacific countries should continue to enhance cooperation in aviation infrastructure, further open aviation market, and let the development results of the civil aviation industry benefit more countries and people.

Feng Zhenglin expressed in his speech that Asia Pacific accounted for the largest share in the world’s economy, and was a vibrant region in terms of civil aviation growth, which would maintain sound development in the next 20 years. As sharing created opportunities, Asia Pacific civil aviation should be more open and work together to create a new situation of mutual benefits and win-win outcome. Asia Pacific enjoyed an open basis for civil aviation cooperation, from which all parties had benefited a lot. In line with the principle of friendly consultation, mutual benefits and win-win cooperation, China civil aviation stood ready to reduce its market access restrictions, future liberalize air traffic rights and share development achievements with APAC countries, in order to make contributions to the long-term and sustainable development of civil aviation industry in the region. As inclusiveness brought interaction, APAC countries shall learn from each other so as to create new drivers for regional development. Asia Pacific countries were characterized by a rich diversity of economic and natural environment, and air transport had its optimum advantage in enhancing connectivity. Asia Pacific civil aviation communities should respect each other, accept each other’s differences, learn from each other, and turn diversity and differences into vitality and driving force for development. Only in this way could we give to play the strengths and potentials of all parties, and facilitate orderly and free flow of regional economic factors, efficient allocation of resources and deep integration of market, make joint efforts to create an open, transparent, inclusive and equitable market environment, so as to contribute to the efforts in making civil aviation industry in APAC countries more competitive. As collaboration produced win-win results, APAC countries shall work together to take up new challenges of development. Nowadays, Asia Pacific civil aviation communities were commonly confronted with a series of problems and challenges, including ever increasing safety risks, backward infrastructure, congested air traffic and a shortage of technical professionals. China made an active response to ICAO’s “No Country Left Behind” initiative, participated in the Aviation Safety Implementation Assistance Partnership (ASIAP), professionals training and other civil aviation cooperation projects, and would further deepen its cooperation with all countries in the APAC region and contribute more Chinese wisdom and strength to promoting the development of civil aviation industry in the region.

Meanwhile, Feng Zhenglin also called on Asia Pacific countries to further strengthen coordination, build consensus, work together and stick to the principle of “finding solutions to civil aviation issues in the APAC region is the collective responsibility of the whole civil aviation community in the region”, so as to develop in a shared, inclusive and collaborative way, create a better environment and more favorable conditions for APAC civil aviation community to achieve better quality development, establish a more closely intertwined civil aviation community with shared interests and future in the region, and shape a brighter civil aviation future for Asia Pacific.

Dr. Aliu stressed in his speech that China has made great contributions to global and regional civil aviation progress. The Belt and Road initiative proposed by the Chinese government would be of great help to strengthening connectivity in the Asia Pacific region, and promoting civil aviation infrastructure building in Belt and Road countries. Asia Pacific featured dynamic economic growth, and saw increasing share in global air transport every year. However, currently Asia Pacific was confronted with unbalanced economic development with factors that threaten aviation safety and development still existing such as inefficient safety regulation, insufficient investment in infrastructure and shortage in human resources. To solve these problems, the International Civil Aviation Organization initiated the Global Plans for Aviation Safety, Capacity and Efficiency, and Global Aviation Security Plan, with an effort to facilitate improvement in world’s civil aviation safety performance and operation efficiency; it also proposed the “No Country Left Behind” initiative to enhance cooperation and assistance and capacity building among member states, moving forward the development of member states in a more balanced and scientific way. This conference focused the discussion on safety and efficiency challenges faced by Asia Pacific countries, in hoping that countries would reach broad common understanding, establish sound safety regulation system, increase investment in air transport infrastructure building and aviation personnel training, and further facilitate the safe, efficient, balanced and sustainable development of civil aviation in Asia Pacific.

Dr. Liu Fang indicated in her speech that China’s civil aviation industry experienced rapid growth in recent years, meanwhile maintained high-level safety performance and operation efficiency. As the civil aviation industry made increasing contributions to the regional economic growth, civil aviation accident rate in Asia Pacific gradually declined, with the whole civil aviation industry demonstrating a very promising future with great potential. However, at the same time, several APAC Member States had not yet established effective aviation safety oversight systems, safety regulation was supported by insufficient human resources and air traffic management performance was yet to be improved; in addition, along with the extended application of digital technologies in the civil aviation industry, aviation safety and security were exposed to cyber vulnerabilities. She pointed out that Asia Pacific countries should enhance air transport service building, improve air traffic flow management performance, and establish new route structure; accelerate infrastructure building of airports, transform airport design and operation model, and appeal to the trending of continuously increasing air traffic. She expressed that ICAO recently would enhance assistance-targeted cooperation with Asia Pacific countries, and hoped that this Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation would build a platform for Asia Pacific high-level technical cooperation and mutual assistance, and help strengthen cooperation in aviation safety and operation efficiency, so as to realize a safer and more sustainable aviation development in Asia Pacific.

The conference adopted the Beijing Declaration, which demonstrated the common concerns, positions and visions shared by Asia Pacific states on aviation safety, air navigation services, accident investigation and human resource development. The declaration not only demonstrates the political commitment of Asia Pacific countries to facilitate civil aviation cooperation, but also will serve as the multi-lateral policy guideline for future civil aviation growth. Implementation of the declaration will promote the civil aviation development of countries along the Belt and Road.

During the conference, leaders of the Civil Aviation Administration of China also had bilateral meetings with delegates from various countries.

Asia Pacific represents the largest and fastest-growing international transport market of China. So far, China has signed bilateral air services agreements with 27 countries in the APAC region, and 65 airlines from 21 countries in the APAC region have launched flights to China. Each week, there are nearly 7 200 flights operating between 59 cities in China and 92 cities in the APAC region. In 2017, China civil aviation registered a total turnover of 10.831 billion ton-km and handled 552 million passengers and 7.058 million tons of cargo and mail, contributing respectively more than 25% of world civil aviation growth and more than 55% of APAC civil aviation growth.