China

China has the highest rate of increase in motor vehicle registration in the world today and vehicle sales are expected to increase by 10-20% annually for the next 10 years. This development, along with the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Expo 2010 in Shanghai, means that China is facing an unprecedented growth in transport demand, increasing traffic congestion and road safety challenges.

In general, traffic flow on main roads in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai has reached 90% of capacity during peak hours. Traffic congestion is aggravated by traffic safety problems - it is estimated that more than 600 people are killed and 45,000 injured daily on China's roads. Annual direct and indirect costs have been estimated at between €10-20 billion, approximately 1.5% of China's GDP.

The Chinese Government has made road safety a priority, creating a 15-Ministry committee under the State Council and introducing the first Road Traffic Safety Law in China in May 2004. To accommodate the growth of number of vehicles in circulation, the Ministry of Communication has outlined a plan in which the roads will be extended by 2 million kilometres and highways by 35,000 kilometres by 2010. Other actions have been taken to ensure sustainable mobility and solve the congestion and safety problems, such as the implementation of ITS technologies to integrate and optimise the use of the existing transport infrastructure. SIMBA will support this effort by bringing the relevant expertise in Europe to the events organised in China to help solve some of the abovementioned mobility issues.

Cooperation in the transport field has been greatly strengthened in the past decades between the EU and China. A series of Memoranda of Understanding have been signed between ERTICO and Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and the municipalities of major cities. In addition, ERTICO has also coordinated several successful cooperation projects with China, including DYNASTY, which ended in January 2006.