-KATHMANDU
The 26th meeting of Cooperative Developments of Operational Safety and Continuing Airworthiness Programme- South Asia (COSCAP-SA) commenced here today.
Director Generals from Civil Aviation Authority and aviation technicians from SAARC countries India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan and Nepal are taking part in the meeting organised by the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
The meeting will review the annual programmes concerning the SAARC aviation sector’s security and services, and prepare a strategy to make them further effective.
Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Jitendra Narayan Dev, inaugurating the event, said coordination and cooperation with international organizations working for aviation safety had been further consolidated to make Nepal’s aviation sector more safe and reliable.
He expressed his view that the meeting would be meaningful in terms of making mutual coordination and developing common concept for air safety in the south Asian countries by strengthening bilateral ties.
CAAN Director General Sanjeev Gautam said that the meeting would be useful to carry out review of activities of aviation sector of South Asia and to prepare future strategy. He added that mutual cooperation and collaboration would help make the civil aviation safe and reliable.
Similarly, Deputy Director General of CAAN, Rajan Pokharel, said that the organisation has given more priority to safety supervision of regulating bodies, capacity development, repair and maintenance of aircraft and flight operation to make civil aviation of South Asia region safe and reliable.
Regional Director of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)’s Asia-Pacific region, Arun Mishra, said that positive result has been achieved in aviation safety in recent years from the steps carried out with cooperation and collaboration of South Asian countries to make the civil aviation safe.
Likewise, Chairperson of COSCAP-SA, Hussein Jaleel, said that there was significant contribution in gross domestic production of the concerned countries as number of air passengers has increased in Asia-Pacific region as well as employment has been created.
According to the International Aviation Transport Association, there is 1.4 per cent contribution of civil aviation in creating employment in the Asia-Pacific region and three per cent in gross domestic production, and some 340 million people have got employment.
COSCAP-SA was established in 1997 at the initiative of ICAO with an objective of collaborating among South Asian countries in aviation safety sector. RSS
