PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong will be delivering Malaysia’s position on road safety at the global stage as he leads the country’s delegation at a United Nations High-Level Meeting.
The Transport Minister arrived in New York City yesterday for a week-long official working visit, where he will detail how Malaysia will uphold globally accepted standards of road safety.
Dr Wee was accompanied by Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (Miros) chairman Prof Wong Shaw Voon and officers from the ministry’s Land Transport Division.
“Chief on the agenda for us is attending the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Road Safety, where I will be delivering the Member State’s statement.
“We will also attend the multi-stakeholder panel to discuss how to incorporate road safety into sustainable development built on political will and a whole-of-government approach,” he said in a Facebook post yesterday.Themed “The 2030 horizon for road safety: securing a decade of action and delivery”, the UN High-Level Meeting on global road safety will be held today and tomorrow.
It will address gaps and challenges, mobilise political leadership and promote multi- sectoral and multi-stakeholder collaboration in the area of road safety to achieve the target of reducing at least 50% of the number of road traffic deaths and injuries by 2030.
Delegates will go through the opening segment, a plenary segment, three multi-stakeholder panels and a closing segment. The plenary segment will comprise statements by member states and observers of the General Assembly.
The three multi-stakeholder panels will focus on mainstreaming road safety with the broader sustainable agenda, promoting accession to and implementation of UN roadsafe legal instruments, mobilising all sectors to implement evidence-based strategies and ensuring sustained domestic and international financing for the next decade.
According to the UN, road traffic crashes cause nearly 1.3 million preventable deaths and an estimated 50 million injuries globally each year, making it the leading killer of children and young people worldwide.
“The road transport system is one of the most hazardous environments people use in their everyday lives.
“Through the adoption of the 2020 UN General Assembly resolution 74/2991 on ‘Improving Global Road Safety’, governments reaffirmed their commitment to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the role and the United Nations legal instruments on road safety, proclaimed the period 2021-2030 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety, and established a target to reduce the number of road traffic deaths and injuries by at least 50% by 2030,” read the concept note for the UN meeting.
On Oct 28 last year, the World Health Organisation and the UN regional commissions, in cooperation with other partners in the UN Road Safety Collaboration, launched the Global Plan 2 as a guiding document to support the implementation of the Decade of Action 2021–2030 and its objectives.