Taiwan Hosts First Policy Theme Meeting of APEC Intermodal and Intelligent Transportation Systems Experts Group

On Taiwan’s behalf, the Institute of Transportation (IoT) of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) hosted the first policy theme meeting of the APEC Transportation Working Group (TPT-WG) Intermodal and Intelligent Transportation Systems Experts Group (IIEG) on 6 July via video conferencing. Over 100 representatives from 17 economies within the APEC region, including government agency representatives, experts, scholars, and industries from Mobility as a Service (MaaS)-related fields attended the meeting. The participants shared the best practices and challenges of promoting integrated transportation services and the possible contributions of MaaS applications in addressing climate change, social fairness, and other issues. The meeting ended successfully.

According to the IoT, as data are the key to MaaS promotion, it is necessary to analyze door-to-door trip planning, reservations, ticketing, and payment data to meet the needs of every traveler. At the meeting, Division Director Takeshi Niwa of Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Japan, Hugues Chataing of Next Generation Mobility Team, Global Railway PJ at Odakyu Electric Railway Co. Ltd., and Chien-Pang Liu (the meeting host), senior technician from the Office of Science and Technology Advisors, MOTC, Taiwan were specially invited to talk about MaaS implementation plans for economies and localities at different levels from the perspectives of public and private sectors. Dr. Yongkook Kim from the Korea Transport Institute shared about MaaS big data platform applications: searching real-time vaccine and mask stocks and planning trips to the stations with available mask stocks through a MaaS App. As integrated payment systems are an important factor for MaaS development, the IoT also invited Director Gwo-Wei Torng from the Innovative Mobility Office of the United States Department of Transportation and Professor Chang Hsueh-Kung from the Advanced Public Transportation Research Center (APTRC) of National Taiwan University to conduct in-depth analyses on the importance of integrated payment systems to intermodal transportation and mobile services. In addition, Adrianne Malasky, the Chair of APEC’s Women in Transport Group, and Jason Taylor (manager/policy consultant) from Canada Department of Transportation’s Office of International Relations also attended the meeting to share about promoting gender tolerance and social fairness in transportation systems and filling urban-rural gaps through MaaS.
According to the IoT, for Taiwan to hold IIEG’s first policy theme meeting with the support of APEC economies indicates that Taiwan’s MaaS promotion results have been well recognized. Additionally, through discussions at the meeting, a consensus on several issues has been reached. The APEC transportation working group will encourage all economies to promote MaaS-related applications, support related follow-up research plans, and facilitate APEC economies’ capacity building and experience exchange in related fields.

Sources: The Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC)