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Joint Opening Session
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WelcomeMartin Marmy, Secretary General, IRU
“Our dream of re-opening the Silk Road is coming true! We are now moving from “Vision to Reality”.” Read... |
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Welcome AddressSerik Negmetovich Akhmetov, Vice Prime Minister, Republic of Kazakhstan |
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Kazakhstan – A Land-Locked Country with Great Transit Potential!Abelgazy Kaliakparovich Kussainov, Minister of Transport and Communications, Kazakhstan
“Among the priority projects for Kazakhstan over the next 5-year period is the decision to create a transcontinental road transport corridor “Western Europe – Western China”. The technical and economic feasibility study has already been accomplished also considering the possibility to attract company and private capital and international credits. There is an agreement regarding credits with 5 important global financial institutions (including World Bank, EBRD, ADB and IBD) for the sum of USD 3.5 billion. The total project amount reaches USD 7 billion. In the second half of 2009, construction starts with a budget of more than USD 200 million.
This Conference should adopt specific proposals and recommendations concerning the further development of international road freight transport. Therefore, we should tackle a few problems of interest for all countries and international organisations, such as: a fair compensation for transit countries’ costs related to the use of their transport infrastructure; the elimination of physical and non-physical barriers, simplification of the visa and trip permit systems; the lack of standard road transit transport requirements which should be obligatory for all transit countries." |
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The Silk Road – Open for Business! Janusz Lacny, IRU President
“The present economic crisis proves that governments are regrettably doing very little to enhance the new opportunities by putting in place the necessary measures concerning changing production processes and the resulting new trade patterns and above all, the rapidly changing global logistics and supply chains. In this time of economic crisis, it is imperative that we seek new business opportunities and that we promote and further facilitate road transport to allow it to drive economic recovery everywhere!” Read.. |
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Kazakh International Hauliers Build Bridges between China and Europe!Makhsat Saktaganov, KAZATO President
“Considering the high significance for the Kazakh economy of the road transport corridor Western Europe – Western China, State President Nazarbayev N. A. particularly emphasised in his message to the Kazakh people, entitled “Through the Crisis to Renewal and Prosperity”, the need for accelerating highway construction through the country joining Europe and China.” Read... |
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Message from the EU Vice-President and Commissioner for Transport, Antonio Tajani“The extensive system of trans-European networks has helped develop the internal market, which allows a vast quantity of European Union citizens and goods, both now and even more so in years to come, to move from one part of the Union to another.
Today, this network system is going to open up towards Asia as well. The trans-European networks are no longer something that only concerns the European Union, but they are a special tool for enlarging the boundaries of Europe in order to strengthen the links between Europe and Asia.” Watch... |
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Partner PresentationNatalia Polunina, Head of the Transport Operators Insurance Department, Ingosstrakh
“Ingosstrakh Insurance Company was established 60 years ago to ensure the international trade contracts of the Soviet Union. Since then Ingosstrakh has been protecting and furthering the development of international relations in the spheres of trade, transport and tourism. That is why it is a great pleasure for us to be a partner of this Conference.” Read... |
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Panel Session 1 "
Improve Framework Conditions of Euro-Asian Road Transport Operations" |
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Trade and Road Transport Facilitation – the Key to Economic Cooperation along the Silk Road! Nora Neufeld, Counsellor, World Trade Organisation (WTO)
“World trade is dramatically impacted by the global financial crisis with far-reaching consequences. There are first indications of the risk of protectionism and all associated dangers. The key measures to counterbalance the consequences of the crisis are “opening” and “facilitation”. Facilitation’s expected benefits: expedited movement, release and clearance of goods; reduced transaction costs; more transparent and predictable trading environment that decreases discrimination. For the road transport industry, the cornerstone is to guarantee the freedom of transit.” Read... |
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Development of Integrated Transport Corridors under the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC)Hong Wang, Director, Transport and Communications Division, Asian Development Bank (ADB)
“Despite the current global economic crisis, the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation (CAREC) Program (Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, People's Republic of China (PRC), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) has great growth potential. According to a study, the region's economy is projected to grow by 8% and its trade by 9% annually during 2008–2017. An efficient, integrated transport network is essential to economic growth. However, the region's transport network remains inadequate and border crossing remains inefficient, hampering the expansion of regional and transit trade. Strong efforts are needed to develop integrated and efficient transport corridors in CAREC region.” Read... |
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Join and Implement UN Multilateral Conventions along the Silk Road! Madan Regmi, Head of Asian Highway, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP)
“There are still about 12,000 km (of 141, 000 km) of Asian Highways which are below standards and 8,300 km (of 114,700 km) missing links in the Trans-Asian Railway Network. Upgrading of highways and completion of railway missing links require US$18 billion and US$ 25 billion in investment respectively.
UNESCAP Resolution 48/11 recommends Member Countries to accede to and implement seven UN international conventions for the facilitation of international transport, in particular road transport. Despite significant progress of Central Asian countries in joining these conventions, problems still exist in implementation, a condition sine qua non to provide transport links between Europe and Asia.” Read... |
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UNECE’s Contribution to the Development of Euro-Asian Transport LinkagesMartine-Sophie Fouvez, Regional Advisor, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE)
“The UNECE has successfully developed the Euro-Asian Transport Linkages (EATL) project in cooperation with UNESCAP. Networks and development needs have been identified. A certain degree of financing support is available. The continuation of the project targets the realisation of further national development projects.” Read... |
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Ministerial Meeting on Trade and Road Transport Facilitation along the Silk Road |
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SpeechMartin Marmy, IRU Secretary General.
“Road transport is and remains the most regulated mode of transport. This is why it needs to be further facilitated to drive a quicker economic recovery. This demand from the IRU is fully in line with the clear results of the NELTI project, which demonstrates that one third of the road transport time is lost due to inappropriate border crossing procedures. Indeed, this demand is also fully in line with the recent statement of the G20 leaders who met in London in April 2009 and urged Governments to stop neo-protectionism and to further facilitate trade, border crossing and thus road transport which carries more than 85 % of the goods in value.” Read... |
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Panel Session 2
"From Truck Caravans to the New Euro-Asian Land Transport Initiative (NELTI)" |
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NELTI OverviewIgor Rounov, IRU General Delegate to the CIS Region.
“The main task of the NELTI Project - which was implemented in close cooperation with the IRU Member Associations from 8 countries - was to start regular commercial haulage from Chinese borders to Central Asia and Europe. Hauliers - like modern Marco Polo - have covered over 1’500 million km. They carried over 6’000 tonnes of different goods (from food products to diplomatic cargo) across the territories of 24 countries.” Read... |
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Presentation of the NELTI Final Report and Video FilmMenno M. Menist, NEA, Transport Research and Training, NL
“According to the analysis conducted, NELTI routes offer the possibility to transport goods from Central Asia to Europe within 10-18 days, depending on the origin and the destination of the trip. Transport time considerably increases as moving away from the European Union, with average speed 490km/day measured on the Northern and 360km/day on the Central and Southern routes, against an average of 750km/day in Europe. The main obstacles en route remain: long waiting times at borders, bad road sections, regular interruptions by road police / traffic inspections and the conditions of the Caspian and Black Sea crossings in the case of the Central Route. The cost structure reveals only slight differences among the three routes.” Read... |
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The World Customs Organisation (WCO) SAFE Framework of Standards Implemented through TIR to Increase Road Transport SecurityEric Stewart, Principal and Senior Advisor, US Chamber of Commerce
“The U.S. Chamber of Commerce fully supports the objectives of the World Customs Organization (WCO) SAFE Framework to secure the movement of global trade in a way that does not impede, but in fact, facilitates trade.
There are several mechanisms that help ensure the safe, secure and expeditious movement of goods around the globe. However, we are only aware of one, the TIR Convention, which is a truly functioning multilateral customs transit system already applicable to multimodal transport. Furthermore, we believe the TIR Convention could be used as a global multilateral legal instrument to provide mutual recognition of the security requirements, including the accreditation for Authorised Economic Operators.“ Read... |
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Discussion: How to Operate Efficiently, Profitably, Safely and Securely along the Silk RoadIgor Rounov; Menno M. Menist; Eric Stewart; Vladimir Florea, President, AITA – Moldova; Kakhramon Sydiknazarov, President, AIRCUZ – Uzbekistan; Haydar Ozkan, General Delegate – IRU Permanent Delegation to the Middle East & Region - Istanbul; Huseyin Sandikci, Director, Karadeniz Transport Co., Turkey. |
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Joint Closing Session |
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The European Union’s Vision on Euro-Asian Road Transport LinksJonathan Scheele, Director, Directorate General for Energy and Transport, European Commission
“This is the first time that the Commission has participated at this event. This should be seen as a signal of the strengthened interest – in Brussels and in the EU in general – in improving land transport links between the EU and South and Central Asia and the Far East. There are a number of concrete activities under way in this respect.
However, with regard to the viability of the entire Western China – European Union corridor, irrespective of the geographical detail of its various axes, the European Union considers that all major players along this corridor need to do their best to remove non-infrastructure related bottlenecks. However, measures are apparently in preparation in Russia that would restrict the transport by road of containers above a certain size; if this new regulation comes into force, it will certainly not help the development of a road corridor between China and Europe (and any corridor obviously goes both ways) through Russia. A discriminatory road tax is also a hindrance to transport relations over road routes involving Russia. The EU is discussing these issues in the framework of our Transport Dialogue with the Russian Federation.“ Read... |
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Declaration of the Ministerial MeetingAbelgazy Kaliakparovich Kussainov, Minister of Transport and Communications, Kazakhstan |
Signing of the Ministerial Joint Statement
Guest Ministers signing the Joint Statement and addressing the Conference |
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Conclusions and Declaration of the 5th IRU Euro-Asian Road Transport ConferenceMartin Marmy, Secretary General, IRU
“Many of the current procedural difficulties could be eliminated or significantly reduced by strictly and fully implementing the UN International Conventions on trade and road transport facilitation, such as the TIR Convention as well as the new Annex 8 of the UN Convention on the Harmonisation of Frontier Controls of Good. In order to help governments to further facilitate road transport, and moreover, to meet the new requirements as per these two UN Conventions as well as the new EU NCTS TIR needs, the IRU has developed modern, web-based, facilitation tools like the IRU’s TIR Electronic Pre-declaration and the Border Waiting Time Observatory internet applications which, respectively, allow each fleet operator, free of charge, to submit the required customs data and know in advance the waiting times at a borders!” Read... |
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Closing AddressTheodor Lazarevich Kaplan, KAZATO Secretary General, Kazakhstan
“An increase of freight traffic along the Silk Road is not possible without an efficient activity of logistics and forwarding companies, which must render real support to export and import trading companies in their choice of the best transport route and the organisation of traffic schemes all along the road from China to Central Asia and Europe. Today, a whole range of logistics companies is being set up in Kazakhstan, which plan to construct trans-loading centres on the border with China." Read... |
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InvitationLasha Zhvania, Ministry of Infrastructure and Regional Development, Georgia
Alexander Petrovich Chkheidze, GIRCA President, Georgia
“May I invite you to the 6th IRU Euro-Asian Road Transport Conference and Ministerial Meeting on Road Transport’s Indispensable Role in Multimodal Links between Europe and Asia – the Caucasian Focus to be held in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, on 16-17 June 2011.
There may be difficulties and problems to solve but the Georgian people have a love of life and are hospitable. We are sure that the Tbilisi Conference will be fruitful and agreeable for all delegates.” Read... |
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Press Conference
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