Welcome address by Mr. Paul Laeremans

"Facilitating Mobility: the Key   to achieving our Future Economic, Social and Environmental Goals" Welcome address by Mr. Paul Laeremans  IRU Congress President  Brussels, 20 May 2000

Allow me, on behalf of the IRU and the Belgian Member Associations, FBAA and FEBETRA, to extend to all here today my warmest welcome to the IRU's 27th World Congress and International Exhibition.

I can tell you already that this will be a great and memorable event. For this, we owe much thanks to our Congress partners IVECO and VDO Mannesmann.

Ladies and gentlemen, every IRU Congress is significant and, one could even say, "historic", in its own right. But the 2000 Congress will be particularly special for 5 reasons.

First, the theme of the Congress, Mobility of People and Goods 2000+ is perhaps the greatest socio-economic and political challenge that we will all have to address at the dawn of the 3^rd millennium. It is not merely a question of being able to move passengers and freight without impediments. It is more about defending what has become a modern age human right. It is about poverty alleviation and the more equitable distribution of wealth. It is about maintaining peace amongst men. It is about having a clean and safe environment for our children…and their children's children. It is about freedom.

All of this might sound extreme, ladies and gentlemen, but I would challenge anyone to state how we can achieve any of these human goals without firstly ensuring the mobility of people and goods. Moreover, consider the role of road transport. Beyond its high quality door-to-door services, only road transport permits high quality person-to-person relations! In this increasingly dehumanised "virtual" world, this rare quality of bringing people together is becoming more essential and precious than ever before.

We have gathered experienced road transport Association Managers, road transport operators, top level experts from the business and transport communities as well as high-ranking representatives from international and national governmental and non-governmental bodies best placed to analyse what is needed to ensure the mobility of people and goods 2000+.

These experts, with your highly interactive participation from the floor, will attempt to answer the key questions and challenges confronting their activities in ensuring mobility:

• Should mobility not be defended as a human right?
• What effect does globalisation and the Internet have on mobility?
• Is infrastructure a sine qua non condition for mobility?
• Do more roads create new traffic or permit sustainable mobility?
• How can mobility be enhanced by other modes?
• What is the role of public-private partnership for mobility?
• How can IT and telematics make road transport more efficient, safe and profitable?
• What is the economic, social and environmental cost of blocking mobility?
• How can we ensure better transport instead of more traffic?
• What will be road transport's role in ensuring mobility?

• Help unite mankind everywhere, including in remote and peripheral regions;
• Play a key role in improving the redistribution of wealth;
• Allow under-developed regions to flourish through greater mobility, hence trade and tourism; and
• Maintain efficient, high quality and profitable road transport operations.

These questions are of great relevance and importance not only here in Brussels, but in every country, not only for today, but moreover for future generations.

The core business of this Congress will be to answer these crucial questions and pave the way to effectively eliminating, from our perspective, all that stands in the way of mobility, and by extension, human relations and social progress.

Second, with a newly elected European Parliament and new Commission, Brussels is the ideal venue for discussing and searching together the best solutions for ensuring sustainable mobility. The "new political blood", with fresh ideas and free agendas, are best placed to work in partnership with the road transport industry to jointly define and implement mobility enhancing policies in Europe that allow us to achieve our common economic, social and environmental goals. For this, we look forward in particular to building on the very constructive and fruitful relationship already forged with the Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner responsible for Transport, Ms Loyola de Palacio, who we will hear from shortly.

Third, the geographic scope of the IRU continues to expand, and our activities continue to attract attention across all borders. We have with us a very large number of participants not only from Central and Eastern Europe, but also from the Middle East. We are certain that this increasing international co-operation will not only bring about greater economic development, but it will also help to foster peace.

We also have with us, for the first time ever, a governmental and business delegation from the People's Republic of China. With over 1.2 billion inhabitants and the potential of becoming one of the major global economic market, ensuring the sustainable mobility of people and goods in the PRC will be a political and economic must. We are delighted that you could be with us to share your thoughts and experiences and hopefully look forward to welcoming you officially to IRU's global and unique network of members capable of thinking globally and acting locally.

Fourth, the IRU has made available for each participant a "high performance" messaging system to facilitate business contacts, and the signing of business contracts. Just visit the IRU stand at the centre of the International Exhibition and you will be able to put yourself in contact with any of the participants attending this Congress. You can choose who you would like to contact based on a wide range of search criteria, including by country or even specific business activities.

Lastly, we have organised a major International Exhibition attracting the leading suppliers to our industry. Exhibitors, such as IVECO and VDO Mannesmann have geared their stands to providing fleet operators with innovative and avant-garde products and services to help you ensure your client's mobility needs, and make your operations more profitable. At the end of this opening ceremony, I would invite you to join me along with IRU President David Green and Secretary General Martin Marmy for the official opening of the International Exhibition.

Before giving the floor back to you John, let me remind participants that the future is in our hands and that this is your Congress. We have designed the plenary session and special workshop with Microsoft's COO Bob Herbold to be highly interactive and we would encourage you all to take an active role.

Working together, we can make the future better.

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