Regional Action Plan for Sustainable Transport of Dangerous Goods along the Mekong River Final Regional Workshop, October 2014 Bangkok, Thailand 1 Group Work

Purpose of Group Work To have participants final comments to the “Implementation Strategy” 2

4 GROUPS Approximately 10 person in each group One group per country (4 countries – 4 groups) Facilitation by NAP Discussion starts today and will continue tomorrow morning. Each group will present their findings on the LCD tomorrow morning 3

ISSUES FOR GROUP WORK Funding Coordination Implementation of the Regional Action Plan (RAP). General And Specific Awareness Building for The Implementation of RAP and other Issues Please try to address all three issues. 4

5 FUNDING: How can the implementation of the RAP be financed and how do we ensure funding? Financing possibilities e.g.: -National budgets, -Bilateral donor agreements, -MRC financing through donors, -Private Sector e.g. co-financing of pilot projects and equipment -Possibility to apply fee for cost recovery? -Other modes? Who will administer the funding for the projects? -National projects -National projects with cross border impact -Cross border project -How do we ensure the attention of the Decision Makers and how would you approach them? What is the MRC/NAP role in this? How do we ensure the best possible utilisation of the funding?

6 IMPLEMENTATION: Who shall be responsible for the implementation the projects (The Implementing Agency is proposed in the Project Document, but there has to be a “driving force” to ensure that it is done (available resources) -National projects -National projects with cross border impact -Cross border project Consider: -Project management -Line agencies involvement -Use of local consultants (cooperation/assistance between the countries) Use of international consultants (liaison between countries in the use of

7 COORDINATION The RAP proposes a The Regional Navigation Coordination Office (RNCO) to be established. If you agree, please comment on the role of the RNCO (see annex in RAP – ToR). Especially the liaison between the countries, the implementation of projects, contracting of consultants and the learning from “best practices” are essential. Guiding questions - who shall coordinate the -Overall implementation of RAP -The individual projects -Follow up and ensure that harmonisation of regulations and preparation of standards and guidelines are achieved to extent possible -Best utilisation of resources (financial, man power) - Assist the countries in various parts of the project implementation and ensure that best practices and lessons learned are used by the countries

8 GENERAL AND SPECIFIC AWARENESS BUILDING FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF RAP AND OTHER ISSUES It’s a general experience that simple instruction is an efficient way to achieve good results and immediate improvements. “TOOLS TO ENHANCE THE RISK AWARENESS OF THE PEOPLE WORKING WITH DANGEROUS GOODS” should be considered to increase the awareness regarding dangerous goods transport on the river. Such instructions can be targeted towards government officials, port managers and workers, and boat captains and crew. In this respect : - Do you believe MRC should prepare such booklets and translate in the national language - For which areas do you think NAP should prepare such booklets?