Speeches: Alaminas MACIULIS, State Secretary, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Lithuania

Alaminas MACIULIS State Secretary, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Lithuania

Curriculum Vitae

First of all, on behalf of Mr. Zigmantas Balcytis, Minister of Transport and Communications of the Republic of Lithuania, I wish to congratulate all participants of the 29th IRU World Congress in Yokohama.

Today, when the globalisation process is in progress and new technologies are rapidly evolving, the transport sector in ascending into the level of new quality.

Road transport operators, as well as transport politicians and other actors of the road transport have to meet new challenges every day. This is reflected by the contents of issues discussed in the Annual World Congress this year, such as - new technologies, their environmental, safety and security impact, influence on cost efficiency, significance in the field of profitablity and quality of services, the new opportunities of multimodal transport. The social aspect of analysing the road transport issues shows that more and more attention is paid no tonly for the quality and quantity factors, but for the human factor as well.

The year 2004 will be an exclusive year for all countries - ten new states join the European Union, thus expanding the united EU market, enhancing new opportunities, there occur new problems that will have to be solved on the national as well as on the international level. Therefore, in the future, more and more often we will have to sit down at the round table and to look for the more efficient ways of operation for haulers not only in separate countries, but for a more efficient operation of the entire transport sector on the whole. In this aspect, a great role will be plaid by the IRU and by our National Road Carriers Association, LINAVA. In the future the exchange of good practices and experiences between the countries will be even more vital and new ways of developing road transport services will have to be developed. In this context, we see great oportunities for the common work under the auspices of the IRU.

In conclusion, the Government of Japan and the Authorities of Yokohama for the possibility of participation in the Congress, thus enabling discussions on such important road transport issues. I also wish great success to participants of the Congress and to wish new achievements in the development of the road transport business.