Automotive Industry in Asia-Pacific region has demonstrated continuous growth over the past 15 years. Despite several interruptions counting from natural disasters to economic & financial crisis, the industry continues to expand together with the overall economy. Meanwhile, the upcoming ASEAN Economic Countries (AEC) in 2015 poses significant challenges for the South East Asia nations themselves on integrating economies together over such diverse cultures & languages. Integration means also sharing the same regulatory and standards, which have direct or indirect links to other major standards worldwide.
Overall Asia-Pacific region represents majority of the world population covering new & emerging markets as well as fully developed markets. Our emerging markets pose tremendous challenges and at the same time tremendous opportunities such as specific market-related demands. The different requirements in Thailand, Indonesia, India and Malaysia necessitate some different research development and engineering. Newly opened country such as Myanmar offers enormous opportunities for both supply and demand side for many years to come. Mega-cities span over Asia-Pacific are unlike anywhere in Europe. This alone requires different mobility solutions.
Another important issue that greatly impact auto industry are the global warming and depleting fossil fuel. Because of variation of the climate in Asia-Pacific, alternative energy sources are also different.
The other challenge is road safety, which concerns, not only vehicle safety technology, road traffic infrastructure but also safety awareness and the upcoming consumer requirements for secondary safety.
The growth in our region has been in focus by the global players for quite some time. 2013 is the year when eleven SAE organisations across Asia-Pacific from Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri-lanka, Australasia, India, Iran to USA join force to organise APAC-17 in Thailand, the meeting point where Western automotive engineering & manufacturing meets with the Eastern ones and prospers. APAC-17 will bring leading engineers and automotive executives together to influence key technologies to cope with current global challenges as we set our conference theme "Innovative Technology for Next Generation Mobility.
ICAE (International Conference on Automotive Engineering) was organized by TSAE in Thailand since 2002. The Conference has been held every year with speakers from government agencies, universities, OEMs, parts suppliers. ICAE also promotes participation from students of various ages including “Student Sessions,” which cover TSAE AutoChallenge (Student Formula), Students' Art Competition and Automotive Quiz.
This year the ICAE-9 is organized as an integral part of the APAC-17.
Mr. Adisak Rohitasune
TSAE President
